HELMUT NEWTON: GENIUS
Erotically Charged, Provocative + Groundbreaking
There is a new documentary about Helmut Newton, The Bad and the Beautiful, which reminds us of how provocative, daring, skilled, creative, brilliant and as Amy Winehouse sang, “a ladyboy” he was. In the documentary Helmut says, “I love women, I love nothing more.” The ladies he liked were strong, provocative and a lot of them were posed and dressed androgynously and suggested as lesbians. He was never over the top, simple but direct. Your mind did the wondering if these women were going to kiss, be spanked or steal a million dollars. There are lots of BDSM kind of set-ups, an element of danger, sometimes a little fun, and lots of women seducing women with smoking, lots of suggested lesbians smoking. Every image is turning on the viewer. We’d like to imagine he also was completely turned on himself most of his waking hours. Grace Jones in the film says, “He’s a little bit pervert, but so am I, so it’s OK,” and she laughs mischievously.
Helmut Newton brought Elegant fashion to the street and crossed lines no one else dared or even imagined for major fashion houses and the leading fashion magazines. He introduced a new harder stunning light to shooting fashion in black and white. Anna Wintour says in the film,” You could look at any (of his) images and say it was a Helmut Newton. The woman was very strong, provocative and in charge.” Isabelle Rossellini said, “He does look at women as a sexual object.” And somehow we didn’t mind because he let the women lead and not ever follow as attested by a German model in the film who spoke of not being the deer but the hunter when she was being photographed by Helmut Newton.
Face it, he is the one. The documentary will remind you of who he was and what fantasies he expertly and gloriously created. So have fun and let your imagination go with the images to a place of suggestive sexual connections that he immaculately executed. Charlotte Rampling in the film summed it up best, “The world needs provocation because it stimulates thought and conversation.” Mr. Newton certainly gloriously did that.
