Helmut Newton

Helmut Newton (Germany 1920-2004) was a photographer famous mainly for his work and numerous collaborations with the fashion world.

Born to a Jewish family in Berlin in 1920, Newton received his first camera at the age of 12, often neglecting his studies at school to devote himself to photography. He fled the growing Nazi oppression in Germany in 1938, and worked in Singapore and Australia during World War II; he later opened a photography studio, and returned to Europe in 1950. In Paris he began working for Vogue, and later Harper's Bazaar, Playboy, and other publications during the 1950s and 1960s.

 Known for the dramatic lighting and unconventional poses of his models in his photographs, Newton's work has been characterised as obsessive and provocative, incorporating themes of sadomasochism, prostitution, violence, and a persistently overt sexuality into the narratives of his images. In the 1970s he increasingly focused on these images rather than fashion photography, publishing several books of his work such as White Women (1976), Big Nudes (1981) and World Without Men (1984).

He died in a car accident in Los Angeles in 2004.