The studio atmospheres that we also encounter in many of the pictures have either the neutral, flat backgrounds of the classical studio cove or are complicated, theatrical architectures. Newton portrays women as active and attractive, assertive and erotic creatures, who seem to dominate the scenery – as well as the men who appear in the occasional motif. His black and white prints remind us of scenes from Hitchcock films, while his colour photographs could pass for precursors to the later movies of David Lynch. Newton’s women posed seductively and aloof, standing on the engine hoods of American sedans, in front of huge Marlon Brando posters or mysteriously illuminated at dusk before lonesome buildings. He placed women on a metaphorical pedestal, which in contrast to earlier fashion photography, no longer consisted of gallantry, but rather of female self-confidence. Helmut Newton staged fashion in the streets, in public spaces or, as he said, “in life”, more often than in the studio. These photographs were also published in Elle, and in 2007 they could be seen at the Helmut Newton Foundation.
Two years later in 1971, he developed the so-called “Newton Photo Machine”, a delayed-action release contraption, with which the female models systematically photographed themselves (and their clothes) in front of a mirror – thereby checking their own poses against their reflection. With a sense of self-irony and self-reflection about his medium that was unusual for the times, Newton slipped himself behind the work process and into the fashion image, and on occasion even put his own camera into the hands of the models. Dressed in black, his presence provided more than a mere tonal contrast to the light-coloured Cardin and Lanvin clothing adorning the models. Five years later, Newton also captured Elle’s models within the confines of a mirrored room this time, however, the photographer himself appeared with his small-format camera behind the women. Newton shot the models without accessories in claustrophobic, narrow spaces, wherein the metal walls reflected and doubled both the clothes and women.Īfter Newton was fired from Vogue, Claude Brouet, who was Editor-in-Chief of Elle, offered him work at her magazine. The image of women and their position in society were in the midst of radical change. The women’s trousers, the above-the-knee dresses and the spectacular space-age fashion in particular were revolutionary. The photographs for Courrèges that were published in 1964 in the fashion magazine Queen (and were the reason why Newton was fired from Vogue) brilliantly translated the ultra-modern designs of the French designer into the photographic image. Helmut Newton worked for numerous other international magazines in addition to Vogue and that he also worked directly with designers and fashion houses. I was to be a regular contributor until 1983,” said Helmut Newton in Pages from the Glossies (Zurich: Scalo, 1998). During Francine’s regime, I did what I considered my best fashion work. So I was kicked out of the hallowed halls of Vogue only to return in 1969 when Francine Crescent was appointed editor-in-chief. I pointed out to her that I had no exclusive contract with Vogue, and it was of course understood that I would never divulge any ideas developed by French Vogue to Queen or vice versa. I was called into her office, we had a tremendous row, and she accused me of treachery and disloyalty and wanted to know why I had not told her about this scoop. When Queen landed on the desk of Françoise de Langlade (then associate editor-in-chief of French Vogue) she hit the roof.
The fashion editor, Claire Rendlesham, decided on a journalistic scoop showing only my Courrèges photos and excluding all other fashion houses from her Paris report. “In 1964 I was commissioned by Queen magazine to photograph the revolutionary collection by Courrèges. Nearly 200 editorial images are on display.
Following the great success of the exhibition A Gun for Hire at the Helmut Newton Foundation in 2005, which put Helmut Newton’s fashion images from the last two decades in the spotlight, the current exhibition Helmut Newton: Fired takes a look at his fashion photography from the 1960s and 1970s.
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