A major innovator in fashion photography, Newton has introduced and elaborated on themes and subjects that continue to influence not only fashion but artistic and cinematic imagery as well. He creates implied or ambiguous narratives that often center on the themes of eroticism and power, which he records with a detached sense of amusement or irony. In his earlier work he favored settings of great luxury and wealth in Paris and on the French Riviera, while in his more recent work he often uses harsher, more modern backdrops such as the Hoover Dam or graffiti-scrawled streets in Paris.

Like much of his work in fashion, Newton’s portraits record the opulent worlds of highly stylized and privileged people. He is able to illuminate the quirks and pretensions of his famous subjects without judging them. His sitters are drawn from the worlds of art, cinema, and politics as well as fashion, and include Ralph Fiennes, Andy Warhol, Catherine Deneuve, Anthony Hopkins, Faye Dunaway, Leni Riefenstahl, Gianfranco Ferré, Kurt Waldheim, and Anselm Kiefer.

Support for this exhibition has been provided by DZ BANK, Frankfurt am Main, Germany and
eyestorm.com Ltd.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue, Helmut Newton: Work, published by Taschen, 2000. It is edited by June Newton and Manfred Heiting, with an introduction by Françoise Marquet.