Best of Helmut Newton [Paperback]

Helmut Newton (Author), Zdenek Felix (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1996

Featuring a wonderful cross-section of Helmut Newton's work, this album includes fashion photographs for French Vogue, dating from the 1970s, his "big nudes", portraits of celebrities, including Elizabeth Taylor, Princess Caroline of Monaco, Salvador Dali, and Daryl Hannah, and his materful cityscapes, night scenes, and ballet images. 120 color & duptone photos.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This affordable collection of black and white shots of Newton's finest photos packs in eye-catching, revealing portraits of female models. Felix's collection serves as a fine introduction to Newton, presenting the range of his works and choosing a format and presentation which accent his best, most original productions. -- Midwest Book Review

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German

Product Details

• Paperback: 156 pages
• Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press; 1st Thunder's Mouth Press ed edition (December 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560251352
• ISBN-13: 978-1560251354
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,732,125 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Female Dominance in Sexual Symbolism, February 6, 2001

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 109,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Best of Helmut Newton (Paperback)

"My women are always victorious." -- Helmut Newton

This collection of Helmut Newton's work casts a special focus on his harder edge images of women as sexually domineering and manipulative. Among the fetishes and voyeuristic images are some wonderful portraits of women, as well. The book is an interesting study in how strongly the personality of the model can be injected into a portrait, especially by the objects chosen, the setting, and the way clothes are worn. The essays do an excellent job of developing your understanding of his methods.

Before going further, please be aware that these images contain much female nudity in sexual situations and one male nude. If these images were in a motion picture, some would undoubtedly go beyond an "R" rating. Many of these images are not appropriate for children, in my view.

Many people think of Helmut Newton as a fashion photographer. These images focus instead on the timelessness of the female personality and role in "overcoming the other." "The clothes . . . only have one purpose: to insufficiently conceal the long, slender female bodies . . . [which] lack innocence." In each case, the women are "defiant."

I found his more playful images, rather than his darker side, the most rewarding. I especially liked "Sie Kommon" where the same scene is done first as dressed and then as naked. It is a stunning set of facing pages. In many other images, he appears in the photograph while taking it. Yet in other cases, the model is juxtaposed against a background object that creates a moderately sexual joke.

I graded the book down one star for overrepresenting the sexual dominance theme at the expense of Newton's other styles, since this is a "best of" book by its title. The sexual dominance images are often highly repetitive, and sometimes not particularly appealing in any way -- even as abstract compositions.

Here are my favorites in the book:

British "Vogue", London 1967 (images 3 and 4)

Tan Giudirelli for Mic-Mac, Paris 1970

French "Vogue", Paris 1975

"Sie Kommon", Dressed and Naked 1981

Jodie Foster, Hollywood 1987 (jacket cover image)

Leni Riefenstahl, near Munich 1992

Big Nude II, Paris 1980

Study for Voyeurism, Los Angeles 1989

Helmut Berger, Beverly Hills 1984

Skull and diamond necklace, Paris 1979

Andy Warhol, Paris 1974

Crocodile eating ballerina, Wuppertai 1983

After you enjoy this book, think about what you believe about women that makes these images work or not work well for you. Where do you detect "truth" and where does the image seem "made up" to you? In particular, is life this sexually tinted?

Then imagine how you would have to change these photographs in order to create feelings of love, peace, and progress. How would you benefit or not benefit from such images as compared to these?

Should the person describing the world have an agenda, or a slant . . . or simply seek to reveal the underlying overall truth that is already there?

Which one of these (if any) is Newton doing?

Overcome your stalled thinking that what you see is literally what it seems to be. This book will help you with that.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow..., March 30, 2000

By 

yygsgsdrassil "yygsgsdrassil" (Crossroads America) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Best of Helmut Newton (Paperback)

Don't believe the nay sayers. These are stunning photos and shoots of the so called "big nudes", the celebrities and the notorious from the fifties to the eighties. A pictorial history like no other, drenched in helmut newton's decadent/art-nouveau style, it has jaw dropping scenarios with beautiful models. Like I said elsewhere, Leibowitz, Ritts, Scavullo, helmut newton. They will open your senses...

19 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This collection comes off as something less than artistic., September 3, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Best of Helmut Newton (Paperback)

When dealing with photography of the nude, one must always be careful that he doesn't cross the line into pornography. Whereas Weston's photographs were great studies in form and composition, Newton's photographs show dolled up women, virtually always in high heels, and appear to have implants. The only thing that separates this from a playboy layout is that it's in black and white