Helmut Newton

Helmut Newton, born Helmut Neustädter was a German-Australian fashion photographer noted for his nude studies of women.

In 1946, Newton set up a studio in fashionable Flinders Lane and worked primarily on fashion photography in the affluent post-war years. He shared his first joint exhibition in May 1953 with Wolfgang Sievers, a German refugee like himself who had also served in the same Company. The exhibition of ‘New Visions in Photography‘ was held at the Federal Hotel in Collins Street and was probably the first glimpse of ‘New Objectivity’ photography in Australia. Newton went into partnership with Henry Talbot, a fellow German Jew who had also been interned at Tatura, and his association with the studio continued even after 1957 when he left Australia for London. The studio was renamed ‘Helmut Newton and Henry Talbot’.

Newton’s growing reputation as a fashion photographer was rewarded when he secured a commission to illustrate fashions in a special Australian supplement for Vogue magazine, published in January 1956. He won a twelve-month contract with British Vogue and he left for London in February 1957, leaving Talbot to manage the business. He left the magazine before the end of his contract and went to Paris where he worked for French and German magazines. He returned to Melbourne in March 1959 to a contract for Australian Vogue.

His works appeared in magazines including, most significantly, French Vogue. He established a particular style marked by erotic, stylized scenes, often with sado-masochistic and fetishistic subtexts.