helmut newton (Berlin, 1920 – United States, 2004) was much more than a fashion photographer and his essence was marked by a provocative and controversial desire that was hidden in the images he took during his six-decade career, some of them publicized by Had gathered at the exhibition. Marta Ortega Pérez Foundation (MOP) which can be seen in A Coruña.
As vice president of the Helmut Newton Foundation and curator of the exhibition told Efe, fashion, portraits and his iconic large nude paintings allow us to discover the work of Newton, “a very hard-working and focused person”. philip garnerwho explained in detail how the exhibition was conceived “As a series of experiences”,
Thus, the first steps start from the battery dock silo in the port of A Coruña, where a series of real polaroids are displayed that lead to projections in which the visitor is accompanied by videos of Newton’s work to the most personal side of the artist. also searching and talking in addition collage Their lives, cameras, accessories and memories. Inside the Universe of Newton, a provocative photographer and lover of natural light and analog photography, “Black and white is prevalent in the works of the ’60s, when he began to build his reputation,” explained Garner, who spoke on the issue. Emphasized that the German-Australian photographer He liked “playing with contrasts” and “being guided by natural light”.,
Cinema also had a great influence on his work: Matthias Harder, director of the Helmut Newton Foundation, said, “When he was a teenager, living in Paris and Melbourne, Newton began to do things that were very close to cinema.” Curator of the exhibition, which can be seen in A Coruña until May 1, 2024. To illustrate this connection with cinema, Harder pauses in front of a photograph of a woman behind whom is a small plane that reminds with death, by Alfred Hitchcock, and which also marks the moment “Women play leading roles” In the work of a photographer.
And from cinema to art, because Newton also found inspiration in paintings. Venus of Mirror, Philip Garner commented, by Diego Velázquez, that it reflects his interest in “playing with photography within photography”.
to Newton “He loved to provoke and be controversial, that was his essence.”, the curator has revealed, and as a magazine photographer he tried to “win over the reader” and make his images “live in their minds, register on their retinas”, and he did this in the style of 70s color photography. achieved with, A. Matthias Harder said, a “brilliant decade” for the artist. “I only did analog photography, and there was no Photoshop then. “It’s this idea of authenticity in photography,” added Harder, who also wanted to explain the exhibition’s title. Helmut Newton: fact and fiction: “He always played with the concept of capturing ideas from reality and turning them into something that could be fantasy.”
The nude photographs, the first he took in the studio, marked a before and after in the career of the photographer, who was always “fascinated by women, power and sensuality.” Margaret Thatcher, Charlotte Rampling, Naomi Campbell or Monica Bellucci Photographs appear throughout the exhibition, including paintings by David Bowie, Andy Warhol or Karl Lagerfeld, As Garner commented, Newton used nude objects for beauty shoots. the trend Paris but he then exhibited them in an art gallery in the French capital, which represented “a brutal change for him” as it showed him that he could reach more of the public through magazines.
The commissioners have detailed that another “turning point” in his career and life was a heart attack he suffered on the streets of New York in 1971 and which left him “Find the courage to delve deeper into your imagination and express yourself more powerfully.”,
Portraiture and fashion are key to his work, but this exhibition also allows visitors to discover a somewhat unknown aspect of Helmut Newton, which are landscapes, evocative images of places that influenced him, such as Paris, Los Angeles, Monte Carlo, Berlin, Vienna or Las Vegas: “He is much more than a fashion or nude photographer,” said Matthias Harder.