(Editor’s note: The provocative nature of Helmut Newton’s work requires a different format from the regular “On Photography” posts. Please note that some of the photos that follow are not safe for work — NSFW.)

“The term “political correctness” has always appalled me, reminding me of Orwell’s “Thought Police” and fascist regimes.” ― Helmut Newton

Early years

Helmut Newton was born in Germany. He bought his first camera at age 12. As a teen, he interned with Geman theatrical photographer Yva, who was a fan of the unclothed female form. Newton fled Germany to escape the Nazis in 1938 after Kristallnacht. Helmut Newton was a Jew. He eventually landed in Australia where he became a citizen. He served in the Australian army for five years then, in 1946, opened his first studio in Melbourne. There he met fellow photographer June Browne, known professionally as Alice Springs. They married in 1948.

The couple moved to France late in the ’50s. They lived in Monte Carlo where their home became the setting for many of his photographs. He earned his reputation in Europe working for Jardin des Modes and London Vogue. His erotic photographs earned him the title of the “King of Kink.” He worked incessantly to get assignments from American Vogue which finally happened in 1971 shortly before its legendary editor Diana Vreeland was let go.

June was often his inspiration. In one sitting she put on a Hitler costume and posed with model Jerry Hall who played the part of Eva Braun, Hitler’s companion.

Helmut Newton
Helmut Newton

My job as a portrait photographer is to seduce, amuse and entertain.

There must be a certain look of availability in the women I photograph. I think the woman who gives the appearance of being available is sexually much more exciting than a woman who’s completely distant. This sense of availability I find erotic.
A woman does not live in front of white paper. She lives on the street, in a motor car, in a hotel room.

Radical fashion photographer

Helmut Newton was a visionary who made edgy, and often racy fashion photographs that were inspired by film noir, S & M, with some surrealism added for taste. His work was and still is today, provocative and, frankly borders on voyeurism. Newton did studio work. His passion was to find over-the-top decorated locations like mansions, elegant hotels and villas. These locals served as elegant set pieces for his boundary-pushing photographs. He was often called to task by feminists who viewed his work as “overly suggestive and unnecessarily risqué.”

His photographs of women demand attention. They are dangerous, possibly menacing and always elegant. His fame came in the ’70s working for French Vogue. His scenes caused talk and concerns as well. His lighting was contrasty, bold. His compositions were arresting.

From "Big Nudes" and "Sumo" by Helmut Newton

Other photographers: Richard Avedon, Herb Ritts and Irving Penn moved fashion photography away from ho-hum depictions of current styles to a more glamorous, artful presentation often working with celebrities, to the point of their work becoming a form of storytelling. Newton, to the contrary, did not seek out celebrities. He preferred tall, strapping lesser-known models.

Helmut was very clear that he liked a big girl and blond girl, in an impeccable suit and high heels. He would take that girl and put her in some wicked or naughty situation, kissing another woman or in handcuffs. -Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of Vogue

Feminist precursor

While Newton was often criticized, his work shows a willingness to toss the visual cliches out by turning the tables on the leering male. His work in various fashion magazines was the first to show nude women as empowered and triumphant. He was, also, not afraid to show the attraction that some women have for each other. “Woman Examining Man” (upper left photo in the opening collage) is an example of how he viewed the sexes. Her ‘man-spread’ pose and ‘checking-him-out’ gaze in this photo from the ’70s echoed the feminist movement.

Helmut Newton self-portrait with two models and his wife June (Alice Springs).

Books and awards

Helmut Newton published several books of his works. The first, in 1976, was “White Women” followed in 1982 by “Big Nudes.” His reputation as a provocateur was locked in. He received many awards for his photography, most notably the Grand Prix National de la Ville de Paris and being named Commander in the Order of Arts in Letters. Newton donated over a thousand photos to a German cultural foundation for a museum intended to be a center for photography. The Museum of Photography — Museum für Fotographie — opened the year of Newton’s death 2004. The permanent exhibition “Helmut Newton’s Private Property” continues to be hugely successful. Newton’s last assignment appeared in American Vogue’s March edition. It featured his unique view of fashion, a model eating grass while another lies on a bed of nails. Helmut Newton was 83.

Helmut Newton was an unabashed photographer who, along with his wife June (April Springs) Newton, changed the look of fashion photography forever. His work was easily seen as decadent and in today’s #metoo environment could be considered exploitive and objectifying. Underneath all of that is the reality that his photographs are evocative and most of all beautiful.

Read more mini-biographies of influential photographers on Photofocus.