Amazon.com Review
Bringing an entirely new slant to the concept of the coffee-table book,
SUMO is a suitably enormous homage to 79-year-old Helmut Newton, the master of subversive and erotic photography. "I wanted to build a monument to the most important photographer of the 20th century," comments Benedikt Taschen, the publisher behind
SUMO. He delivers. Weighing over 65 pounds, measuring more than two feet long, and breaking any previous size record in book publishing,
SUMO contains 480 pages of every aspect of Newton's outstanding career in photography. Each copy of the book is bound by hand and numbered and signed by the artist. In order to showcase this colossus, the book is packaged with its own stand designed by Philippe Starck.
This outsized volume contains the body of Newton's controversial yet iconographic work, documenting fashion, fetishism, and above all an overriding obsession with voyeurism that can make the viewer feel complicit or uneasy by turns. Newton himself describes SUMO as "terrifying and outrageous. I don't even look at it as a book.... I look at it as an object." --Catherine Taylor, Amazon.co.uk
Product Description
This is the biggest and most expensive book production in the 20th century. It is the limited edition of 10,000 copies worldwide, each signed and numbered by Helmut Newton! "SUMO" is a titanic book in every respect: it is a tribute to the twentieth century's most influential, intriguing and controversial photographer. Measuring 50 X 70 cm (20 X 27.5 inches) and weighing approx. 30 kg (66 lb.), the book contains 464 pages, breaking any previous record. "SUMO" is a truly unique publication. "SUMO", edited by June Newton, features a wide selection of over 400 pictures, most of which are published for the first time, covering every aspect of Newton's outstanding career in photography: from his stunning fashion photographs, which pointed the way for generations of photographers, to his nudes and celebrity portraits. In defiance of the much-loved Japanese discipline that inspired the title of this colossal work, there is no need for it's proud owner to wrestle with "SUMO". Philippe Starck has designed a unique device for displaying the book at home. "SUMO" is available to all Newton fans and photo devotees in a limited edition of 10,000 copies, all numbered and signed by the artist.
by June Newton
by Benedikt Taschen
by Helmut Newton
by Mario Testino
