Helmut newton girl with a gun9/9/2023 ![]() ![]() Behind the lens, however, the man who holds the camera effects the fashioning, and exerts the real power over the subject. He flattens and elevates his subjects: instead of portraying character depth, Newton magnifies what he most adores in women, their power. This photograph exemplifies Newton’s creation of heroic femmes fatales rather than real-life characters. Nielsen dominates, conscious of her strength and beauty, at ease with her nudity. Newton fashions Nielsen into a grandiose woman, an emblem of authority and power, rather than depicting a complex human subject with fears and flaws. However, how model and photographer negotiate the particular power dynamics in this act of creation – of arrangement, manipulation, and the display of strength – remains cryptic. The camera does not simply capture, it also creates. The power dynamics are intricate: the model seemingly dominates the surroundings but it is the photographer that manipulates her body into a representation of his desire and fantasy. Flowers and a lavish interior complement her elegance. Nielsen glances nonchalantly at the camera. Her body is seen from the side, concealing her crotch, with her left breast exposed as Nielsen turns her head towards the photographer. Nielsen, towering from black shoes to her ash-blonde hair, is in the nude, a dressing gown slides off her shoulders. The contrast is low, both model and background are well-lit an opulent, open double-door enframes Nielsen, giving the photograph a highly-stylised atmosphere. Newton’s black-and-white photograph of the Danish model and film star Brigitte Nielsen shows her standing in an elegant room at the Hotel Hermitage in Monte Carlo. The contrasting images reveal how differently Newton and Springs approached photography. In the first part of ‘Us and Them’, double portraits, taken by Helmut Newton and Alice Springs respectively, show glamorous celebrities. Thus, Helmut and June Newton’s professional careers intimately intersected with their private lives, through manifold layers of support, dependence, and love, until his tragic death in 2004. ![]() In the 1970s, she also began to photograph successfully, under the pseudonym Alice Springs (also to avoid too close an association with her well-known husband). ![]() When Helmut Newton’s career took off, June curated and edited his works, and acted as art director for most of his shoots, a role she continued until his death. June abandoned a promising acting career in her native Australia, where she had met Helmut, when the couple returned to Europe after the Second World War. Helmut and June Newton collaborated throughout their marriage. ‘Us and Them’ exhibits photographs Helmut and June Newton took of each other (‘Us’) alongside portraits of the rich and beautiful (‘Them’). This year, the two exhibitions are on display again, celebrating the Foundation’s 10th anniversary in Berlin. Shortly before his death, in 2004, Helmut Newton chose two exhibitions – ‘Us and Them’ and ‘Sex and Landscapes’ – to inaugurate the recently established Helmut Newton Foundation. So, how does the routine availability of naked bodies change our interpretation of Newton’s nudes? What kind of intimacy, if any, can we rediscover in his photography today? The internet provides a catalogue of nakedness: black, brown, white, old and young, vintage, bondage, fake and fake-real, enlarged and amateur. Today, nudes have mostly lost at least their provocative effect. As critics accused him of voyeuristically exhibiting women’s intimacy, Newton countered that his photographs portrayed perfect female strength. When feminists denounced him for reducing female sexuality to silent, naked bodies, Newton retorted that he actually adored women, and hence fashioned them as strong and gracious subjects. REVIEW: Helmut Newton/Alice Springs: ‘Sex and Landscapes’ and ‘Us and Them’, Helmut Newton Foundation, Museum of Photography, Berlin, 5th June – 16th November 2014.Ĭontroversy has routinely accompanied Helmut Newton’s photography. ![]()
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