Helmut Newton Work (Hardcover)

~ June Newton (Author), Manfred Heiting (Editor), (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

HELMUT NEWTON - Work is a great alternative to his amazing and pricey SUMO. -- Picture Magazine, March/April 2001

Product Description

AMAZONS AND STARS IMMORTALIZED BY THE MASTER OF PHOTOGRAPHIC PROVOCATION

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 editor Manfred Heiting, opened on October 30th, 2000 at the National Gallery in Berlin. TASCHEN is proud to bring you HELMUT NEWTON - WORK, the catalog of the exhibition. WORK 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 über-women 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 $1500 price. WORK is SUMO for the rest of us!

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 279 pages
• Publisher: Taschen America Llc; First Printing edition (2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3822857432
• ISBN-13: 978-3822857434
• Product Dimensions: 12.5 x 10 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,796,227 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Helmut Newton's Most Unrestrained Work, February 25, 2001

By	Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

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!

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Helmut Newton Work, February 14, 2001

By A Customer

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!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 5/5, March 31, 2002

By	Peter A. Carbonaro "Yes, THAT Peter Carbonaro." (Oceanside, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.(