Today we celebrate the Centennial of Helmut Newton’s birth ( Born: October 31, 1920, Berlin). I deeply appreciate and admire his work, particularly understanding his early life in Berlin in the 1930’s that undoubtedly influenced his approach to his photographs.
Below is a collection of quotes that I transcribed from the latest documentary of his life (The Bad & The Beautiful) that collectively describes his work. For now, I will leave it at that.
Helmut Newton standing in Yva’s studio in Hotel Bogota, Berlin
Photograph taken by and gifted to me by Joachim Rissman
Tono Stano and Helmut Newton in Prague’s Staré Mĕsto Photograph gifted to me by Tono Stano
Quotes : The Bad & The Beautiful
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“You’re not going to get a lovely girl on a lovely beach. That’s not what he was about.”
Anna Wintour
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“For me it’s very unpleasant. Not the man, but the work. I don’t expect a man to look like his work; especially when it’s about fantasy and dreams.”
Susan Sontag
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“There is no neutrality…there is no right and wrong…everything is tainted with a point of view.”
Susan Sontag
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“It’s a passion. An obsession. He’s obsessed.”
June Newton
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“When I look at the pictures, they are different than me. It was his imagination. It was my imagination…”
Claudia Schiffer
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“It’s actually extraordinary Helmut was accepted by the industry because he was much more dangerous, much more ambiguous and frightening than an Avedon or a Penn”
Anna Wintour
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“It’s great to be a provocateur. That’s what the world needs, a form of provocation because it stimulates thoughts and it stimulates ideas.”
Charolette Rampling
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“In a lot of these pictures (with me and very big white men), they want me, but I’m not available. I am so close….”
Grace Jones
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“What we do in fashion…attraction and loveliness… the visions of loveliness… do need work that is thought-provoking and sometime upset people.”
Anna Wintour
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“You express the idea… (he is not) photographing you, (he is) photographing an idea that is in his head…and you are the vehicle…”
Isabella Rosellinni
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“I learned to respect a piece of film…”
Helmut Newton
