Helmut Newton Killed in Car Crash
Friday, January 23, 2004
LOS ANGELES — Acclaimed fashion photographer Helmut Newton (search) died Friday after his car sped out of control from the driveway of the famed Chateau Marmont hotel and crashed into a wall, police said. He was 83.
Newton, whose work appeared in magazines such as Playboy, Elle and Vogue, was best known for his stark, black-and-white nude photos of women.
…
The German-born photographer, who was Jewish, fled his homeland for Singapore in December 1938, a month after Nazi-led persecution programs began. He eventually settled in Australia and became a citizen, then took up residence in Monte Carlo, overlooking the Mediterranean — a frequent backdrop for his nude images.
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A hosiery ad he shot, featured on a giant billboard in Times Square for a time, was banned from the side of New York City buses in 1998 because it was deemed to be too racy. It showed a rear-end view of a woman lying face-down, wearing only a pair of stockings. A side view of her bare breast also was visible.
(Above extracted from
Fox News)
Both Fox and the LA Times downplayed Newton's Aussie roots.
In the
Melbourne Herald Sun we learn:
Opening a small photo studio in Melbourne after the war, Newton began contributing fashion photos in 1961 to French Vogue, a magazine he made his own for a quarter of a century.
Edmund Capon, director of the Art Gallery of NSW, which has more than 20 Newton prints – including Woman in Chains and Nude in Seaweed – said: "He was perhaps the great immortaliser of the body beautiful, but he gave images a kind of contemporary sensuality."
"Even though he might have been primarily an image maker of fashion and contemporary taste, he put that genre firmly into the litany of 20th century photography."
Bernard Leser founded Vogue Australia in 1959 – Newton's launching pad to immortality. He achieved superstardom shooting for the group's Vogue and Vanity Fair magazines.
The sun uses this pic to lead into the story:
which is a crop-job on this book cover:
A criminal edit, IMHO! The bird gives the photo character and a stylistic balance.
Newton did ads for VW:
and his work is the subject of the worlds heftiest tome:
The publisher (
Taschen) claims:
The biggest and most expensive book production in the 20th century
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 480 pages, breaking any previous record. SUMO is a truly unique publication.
The site gives you a pic like this:
where you can click thru various pages of the book - fun!
der Brucer (imagining a struggling art student lugging a 66lb book in her backpack)
