Saddle I, Paris (at the Hotel Lancaster), 1976

Newton was fascinated by the potential connotations of the luxurious and meticulously crafted products presented in the faubourg Saint-Honoré, Paris, showrooms of silk and saddle specialists Hermès. Here, alongside the finest of fashionable clothes, accessories and bags, were finely stitched leather saddles, harnesses and bridles. In 1976 Newton found his opportunity to make a picture story for Vogue Hommes on the erotic charge that he had identified in this meticulously executed leather equestrian equipment. He visualised and executed a series of pictures in which his high-fashion models enact elegantly stylised games of submission and domination in a witty spoof of conventional fetish photography.