.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
I. "Arielle After a Haircut", Paris, 1982
II. "Woman Examining Man", U.S. Vogue, Saint Tropez, 1975
III. "By-product of an Advertising Sitting", Paris, 1975
IV. "Jodie Foster", Hollywood, 1987
V. "Paloma Picasso", Saint Tropez, 1973
VI. "Lisa Lyon at Home", Venice, California, 1981
VII. "Jerry Hall, Spitting", French Vogue, Paris, 1978
VIII. "Eva with Pickelhaube", Monte Carlo, 1993
IX. "Jenny Kapitän, Pension Dorian", Berlin, 1977
X. "Big Nude III, Henrietta", Paris, 1980
Helmut Newton’s 1998 Camera Work portfolio brings together ten powerful images emblematic of his mature oeuvre through a twenty year period from 1973 to 1993. Each image selected by Newton – be it primarily a fashion study for Vogue, a portrait commission, or a nude – blurs the boundaries between these genres in the photographer’s signature way. These photographs are characterised by a cool, hard-edged sophistication, a disquieting eroticism, and a shrewd and telling attention to pose and to gesture and to the props and settings that help build the implicit narrative. Newton’s images, while meticulously contrived, have a compelling immediacy and authority as documents of a privileged world seen through his eyes and experience.
The context of the portfolio’s publication – by the Berlin gallery Camera Work and with an introductory text by Fritz Gruber, a senior and highly respected figure in the story of photography in Germany – underscores the atavistic pull of Newton’s German roots. The portfolio was produced by Gert Elfering, the founder of Camera Work and a great champion of Newton’s work, in association with graphic designer Christian Diener.
The elegant Fritz Gruber, writer, collector, and curator, closely associated with the Cologne Photokina fair since its inception in 1950, had known and respected Newton for many years. Gruber’s well-chosen words give knowing insights into the photographer’s creative psyche: ‘Each of his photographs reveals something of his own story. His images ultimately are a homage to the women whose nakedness or chic clothes he presents. He cannot help but acknowledge with irony the Berlin-born Prussian whose destiny sent him on extended travels to Australia and ultimately to Monte Carlo. One way or another, he remained a Berliner and it is perhaps for this reason that his incomparable images capture the essential pulse of his time.’
The portfolio was published in an edition of ten. The present, unnumbered example was acquired directly from June Newton.
Philippe Garner
II. "Woman Examining Man", U.S. Vogue, Saint Tropez, 1975
III. "By-product of an Advertising Sitting", Paris, 1975
IV. "Jodie Foster", Hollywood, 1987
V. "Paloma Picasso", Saint Tropez, 1973
VI. "Lisa Lyon at Home", Venice, California, 1981
VII. "Jerry Hall, Spitting", French Vogue, Paris, 1978
VIII. "Eva with Pickelhaube", Monte Carlo, 1993
IX. "Jenny Kapitän, Pension Dorian", Berlin, 1977
X. "Big Nude III, Henrietta", Paris, 1980
Helmut Newton’s 1998 Camera Work portfolio brings together ten powerful images emblematic of his mature oeuvre through a twenty year period from 1973 to 1993. Each image selected by Newton – be it primarily a fashion study for Vogue, a portrait commission, or a nude – blurs the boundaries between these genres in the photographer’s signature way. These photographs are characterised by a cool, hard-edged sophistication, a disquieting eroticism, and a shrewd and telling attention to pose and to gesture and to the props and settings that help build the implicit narrative. Newton’s images, while meticulously contrived, have a compelling immediacy and authority as documents of a privileged world seen through his eyes and experience.
The context of the portfolio’s publication – by the Berlin gallery Camera Work and with an introductory text by Fritz Gruber, a senior and highly respected figure in the story of photography in Germany – underscores the atavistic pull of Newton’s German roots. The portfolio was produced by Gert Elfering, the founder of Camera Work and a great champion of Newton’s work, in association with graphic designer Christian Diener.
The elegant Fritz Gruber, writer, collector, and curator, closely associated with the Cologne Photokina fair since its inception in 1950, had known and respected Newton for many years. Gruber’s well-chosen words give knowing insights into the photographer’s creative psyche: ‘Each of his photographs reveals something of his own story. His images ultimately are a homage to the women whose nakedness or chic clothes he presents. He cannot help but acknowledge with irony the Berlin-born Prussian whose destiny sent him on extended travels to Australia and ultimately to Monte Carlo. One way or another, he remained a Berliner and it is perhaps for this reason that his incomparable images capture the essential pulse of his time.’
The portfolio was published in an edition of ten. The present, unnumbered example was acquired directly from June Newton.
Philippe Garner