Berlin had an indelible influence on Helmut Newton and his photographic work. Many of his iconic images reflect his fascination with the city throughout his remarkable career, from the 1930s to the 21st century: night owls in ultra-cool clubs, nude portraits in the old Berlin boarding houses of his youth, and the Berlin film world.
Born in Berlin in 1920, Helmut Newton trained as a teenager under the legendary photographer Yva. She introduced him to the seductive worlds of fashion, portraiture, and nude photography. At just 18, he was forced to flee the Nazis, but Berlin never let him go.
After his career took off in Paris in the 1960s, he regularly returned to Berlin to photograph for magazines such as Constanze, Adam, Vogue, Condé Nast's Traveler, ZEITmagazin, Männer Vogue, Max, and the Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin, as well as his own magazine Helmut Newton's Illustrated.
In 1979, the newly relaunched German Vogue commissioned him to retrace the footsteps of his youth and capture the fashion scene of the time. The resulting portfolio, Berlin, Berlin!, inspired the title of the exhibition celebrating twenty years of the Helmut Newton Foundation.
This collection includes Newton's most iconic images of Berlin, as well as many previously unseen photographs from the 1930s through the 2000s: night owls in ultra-cool clubs and restaurants, nude portraits in the boarding houses he knew from his youth, and the Berlin film world, including Hanna Schygulla and Wim Wenders at the Berlin Wall, John Malkovich, and David Bowie.
In October 2003, just months before his death, Newton moved large parts of his archive to his new foundation, housed in the Museum für Fotografie next to Zoologischer Garten station—the very station from which he fled Berlin in the winter of 1938. This publication thus brings the story of his extraordinary life and work full circle.
Helmut Newton (1920-2004) was one of the most influential photographers of all time. He first achieved international fame in the 1970s, when he worked mainly for French Vogue and became known for his controversial scenarios. Most striking was his ability to make a carefully planned photograph look fresh and dynamic. Among his many titles and honors was this distinction: Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Helmut Newton. Berlin, Berlin - Matthias Harder
Pages: 244
Price: €53.99
Publisher: Taschen
