Customer Reviews

Helmut Newton Work

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Mr. Helmut Newton's work continues to have the ability to shock, and this exhibition catalog from the recent 80th birthday celebration show at the German Center of Photography at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin will definitely get your attention. The images contain many new and previously unpublished works by Mr. Newton. For those who like his aggressive and humorous views of women as leaders in sexual fantasy, this book is a must. For those who like his close-ups of faces more, this book will be a disappointment.

Before going further, let me mention (as the jacket cover images certainly suggest) that this book is rife with female nudity in sexual situations of an extreme nature. I suspect it would be hard to get this book rated as an "R" if it were a motion picture. The book is inappropriate for children, so make your purchase decision accordingly.

The essays in the book are the best part. I thought they captured the spirit of Mr. Newton's work especially well. Here are a few key phrases about the subject matter of his work that I liked and found particularly apt:

"women who take the lead"

"women who love and desire"

"women who are both responsible and willing"

"imagination and reality merge"

Mr. Newton was born in Berlin in 1920 and had to leave with his parents to escape persecution by the Nazis in 1938. It is very fitting that this show be held in Berlin, and that it contain some very wonderful images he shot in Berlin of women just before the Wall came down there.

He does not add much to his work to help you understand it. His view is that "a photographer . . . should be seen and not heard." His messages are very overt, so I think you see what he had in mind.

The works displayed here are primarily his female nudes and sexual fantasies. These involve female nudes in both domestic and public situations (as well as ones where they are treated like objects, such as the woman hanging from the wall like a part in an auto assembly plant), contrasts with clothed women (using the same models), as participants with mannequins (evoking the famous Newton humor), and as contrasts between the use of color and not for the same scenes.

The brilliant part of this book is its design. Facing pages always present a problem for photography book designers. What should be the relationship? In almost all cases, the facing pages here dialogue powerfully with one another and add to your understanding of each image. There are also some stunning color montages that could keep you occupied looking at them for hours.

Some viewers will be offended by the most extreme of the images that display women as objects. These are meant to be criticisms of that perspective, so they are meant to offend. Offend they will. To me, the most powerful is a woman hunched over on a bed facing down with a saddle on her back.

Of course, some may be even more affected by seeing the carefully posed statements employing his wife, Ms. June Newton, the show's curator, as the unclad model.

Many of my favorite images of his were missing from the book. Among my favorites available here include:

Chatillon Mouly Roussel & Dormeuil, French Vogue, Paris, 1979

Pierre Cardin, French Vogue, Theoule, France, 1992

Faye Dunaway, Vanity Fair, Los Angeles, 1987

Ralph Fuentes, Vanity Fair, Venice, Italy, 1995

Walking Women (clad and unclad), Vanity Fair, Paris, 1981

Sie kommen (clad and unclad), Vanity Fair, Paris, 1981

To me, Mr. Newton's greatest genius is in his ability to capture the personality of the model. This draws him in closer to the subject, and his aim is unerring. I missed seeing more of his portraits in this volume.

The editor deserves commendation for including some of each of Mr. Newton's many experimental styles. His virtuousity with technique has not been shown in one volume before.

The quality of the paper and reproduction are outstanding, and you will be very pleased with the representation of the images in this volume.

After you finish seeing these images, I suggest you think about how we can move beyond these perceptions of who a woman is. Does identity have to be so sexual to be honest? In a world of sexual equal opportunity, how should women think about themselves and how should men think about them? Those questions still need a lot of work photographically.

Look closely and have a great good laugh at the outrageous humor!

This beautifully bound and printed tome is a must for any Helmut Newton fan. If you are looking for an introduction to Newton's work, this is an excellent starting point. Included are many of the master's better known photos, as well as many not frequently seen. The photos are sumptuous. The quality is exceptional. Why are you waiting???? Buy this book!

Published to coincide with the huge touring exhibition arriving at ICP later this month, Work is both a catalog of the exhibition and the first comprehensive review of all aspects of Helmut Newton's photographic life, ranging from fashion shots to nudes and portraits and some of his more experimental work. Some viewers might be offended by some of his more extreme images -- the woman on all fours with a saddle on her back springs immediately to mind -- but their beauty and technical perfection is undeniable. Newton often focuses on the threatening sexuality of women, often placing them in confrontational poses in seemingly incongruous settings. Balancing out his more overt images, however, are portraits that display a fragility and peace that serves to underscore the impact of his more outre work. The breadth of Newton's styles and his technical virtuosity are simply staggering. Containing many new and previously unseen works, Work is a must for any devotee of photography.(

Turning 80 is not so bad when the occasion is marked by a sweeping retrospective of your life's work. An exhibition of 300 Helmut Newton photographs, curated by June Newton and Taschen's Manfred Heiting, opened on October 30th, 2000 at the National Gallery in Berlin. WORK is the immaculately published catalog of that exhibition. It features for the first time all aspects of Newton's oeuvre: carefully selected fashion and advertising photographs, nudes, portraits, montages and experiments. All together, photographs that span Newton's entire career as one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century. Embracing without reservation the somewhat menacing sexuality of strong women, Newton's work has a history of creating extreme discomfort, even outrage, in the viewer. Legs apart, breasts exposed or girded in erotically charged undergarments, these überwomen stare the viewer down and dare him or her to approach. Even in the notorious shot of a model wearing both riding boots and a saddle, Newton's women truly own their sexuality and that is a threatening stance to many. Knowing this about his work, celebrities allow themselves a more blatantly sexual persona in front of his camera than they might for any other photographer resulting in truly astonishing images of Sigourney Weaver, Catherine Deneuve, Elisabeth Shue and others.

WORK is the perfect book for those who coveted Taschen's record-breaking book of Newton's work, SUMO, but who could not meet its $2,500 price. WORK is SUMO for the rest of us.

I swear Master H. has peered into my mind! Photograhy as it should be, Photography as it is meant to be. A captured thought in your mind or a captured picture in your own eye. Taste the visuals of this well put together book of b&w & color. Enjoy it as it is. Pace yourself with or without your Martini, and let the Princess of Hanover steal your thoughts as she did mine! If you have never danced along the edge, you will........