Product Description

Featuring a wonderful cross-section of Helmut Newton's work, this album includes fashion photographs for French Vogue, dating from the 1970s, his "big nudes," portraits of celebrities, including Elizabeth Taylor, Princess Caroline of Monaco, Salvador Dali, and Daryl Hannah, and his materful cityscapes, night scenes, and ballet images. 120 color & duptone photos.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1062179 in Books
• Published on: 1996-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 156 pages

Review
This affordable collection of black and white shots of Newton's finest photos packs in eye-catching, revealing portraits of female models. Felix's collection serves as a fine introduction to Newton, presenting the range of his works and choosing a format and presentation which accent his best, most original productions. -- Midwest Book Review

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German

Customer Reviews

Female Dominance in Sexual Symbolism
"My women are always victorious." -- Helmut Newton

This collection of Helmut Newton's work casts a special focus on his harder edge images of women as sexually domineering and manipulative. Among the fetishes and voyeuristic images are some wonderful portraits of women, as well. The book is an interesting study in how strongly the personality of the model can be injected into a portrait, especially by the objects chosen, the setting, and the way clothes are worn. The essays do an excellent job of developing your understanding of his methods.

Before going further, please be aware that these images contain much female nudity in sexual situations and one male nude. If these images were in a motion picture, some would undoubtedly go beyond an "R" rating. Many of these images are not appropriate for children, in my view.

Many people think of Helmut Newton as a fashion photographer. These images focus instead on the timelessness of the female personality and role in "overcoming the other." "The clothes . . . only have one purpose: to insufficiently conceal the long, slender female bodies . . . [which] lack innocence." In each case, the women are "defiant."

I found his more playful images, rather than his darker side, the most rewarding. I especially liked "Sie Kommon" where the same scene is done first as dressed and then as naked. It is a stunning set of facing pages. In many other images, he appears in the photograph while taking it. Yet in other cases, the model is juxtaposed against a background object that creates a moderately sexual joke.

I graded the book down one star for overrepresenting the sexual dominance theme at the expense of Newton's other styles, since this is a "best of" book by its title. The sexual dominance images are often highly repetitive, and sometimes not particularly appealing in any way -- even as abstract compositions.

Here are my favorites in the book:

British "Vogue", London 1967 (images 3 and 4)

Tan Giudirelli for Mic-Mac, Paris 1970

French "Vogue", Paris 1975

"Sie Kommon", Dressed and Naked 1981

Jodie Foster, Hollywood 1987 (jacket cover image)

Leni Riefenstahl, near Munich 1992

Big Nude II, Paris 1980

Study for Voyeurism, Los Angeles 1989

Helmut Berger, Beverly Hills 1984

Skull and diamond necklace, Paris 1979

Andy Warhol, Paris 1974

Crocodile eating ballerina, Wuppertai 1983

After you enjoy this book, think about what you believe about women that makes these images work or not work well for you. Where do you detect "truth" and where does the image seem "made up" to you? In particular, is life this sexually tinted?

Then imagine how you would have to change these photographs in order to create feelings of love, peace, and progress. How would you benefit or not benefit from such images as compared to these?

Should the person describing the world have an agenda, or a slant . . . or simply seek to reveal the underlying overall truth that is already there?

Which one of these (if any) is Newton doing?

Overcome your stalled thinking that what you see is literally what it seems to be. This book will help you with that.

Wow...
Don't believe the nay sayers. These are stunning photos and shoots of the so called "big nudes", the celebrities and the notorious from the fifties to the eighties. A pictorial history like no other, drenched in helmut newton's decadent/art-nouveau style, it has jaw dropping scenarios with beautiful models. Like I said elsewhere, Leibowitz, Ritts, Scavullo, helmut newton. They will open your senses...

This collection comes off as something less than artistic.
When dealing with photography of the nude, one must always be careful that he doesn't cross the line into pornography. Whereas Weston's photographs were great studies in form and composition, Newton's photographs show dolled up women, virtually always in high heels, and appear to have implants. The only thing that separates this from a playboy layout is that it's in black and white