Helmut Newton's unique eye forms the new monograph in Louis Vuitton's Fashion Eye series. Newton left France in 1981 to live in Monaco with his wife June because, he said: “I like the sun, and there’s none left in Paris.” From the terrace of his residence, on the 19th floor of a skyscraper, he overlooked the principality and observed his subjects posing them on building sites and Belle Epoque monuments. Within the setting of a Monegasque quotidian, between pools and palm trees, concrete and azure, his models are positioned using the legendary and provocative visual grammar that is a wholly Newtonian signature.
Mercenary of fashion, formidable portraitist, master of female nudes, most striking was Newton’s ability to make a thoroughly planned photograph feel fresh and dynamic. Provocative and controversial until the end, his work was referred to as “porno chic”. Working principally for French Vogue over four decades, as well as other famous fashion and lifestyle magazines such as Playboy, Nova, Marie Claire, Traveler, Vanity Fair and American Vogue, causing scandal and then influence.
Published November 2017