Helmut Newton Research Paper

(01)
DATE OF BIRTH: 31 July,1920
DEATH: 23 January, 2004
NATIONALITY: German-Australian

(02)ARTIST

Helmut Newton, originally known as Helmut Neustädter, was born on October 31, 1920 in Berlin, Germany. Beginning at a young age Newton’s passion for photography grew immensely. A year before WWII (1939 -1945) Newton began an apprenticeship on hist first ever camera (Kodak Brownie) with Madame Yva; famous for nude, portrait and fashion photography. Madame Yva taught Newton how to pose the models, which set the stage for the rest of his career showing him his first ever lingerie shoot. The apprenticeship was short lived due to the fact that Newton’s father was Jewish and Nazism had reached its peak in 1939, so Newton fled Germany for Singapore

The photographer created flamboyant scenes of riches that stylised his narrative depth and gave his subjects context in the photographs. His work was partly inspired by his luxurious lifestyle and the fact that he never really stopped taking chances, when the opportunity for a photograph showed. This was the reason he used Polaroid quite a bit, as shown: (05) ‘World Gem Flash’ Helmut Newton portrayed his work through a number of eccentric and unique ways, essentially challenging the ideas of what was thought of as respected art and turning it into photo- graphs with stories. In his Polaroid ‘World Gem Flash’

Newton’s photograph’s grasp the Parisian culture in a way photographers before him had ever only attempted to achieve and subject the audience to feel the intensity of each picture. The cultural framework that Newton uses is a result of his many travels and world experiences both early and later on in his life. The photograph ‘Bergström over Paris’ captures an insight into the Parisian luxury and freedom of nakedness. The photograph shows the stereotypical french model in luxurious shoes, not looking down at the beautiful city below, but instead staring at herself. This European culture was one of Newton’s most photographed and iconic framework themes. Along with culture is the subjective frame that allowed Newton to compromise the audiences full attention to express what the photograph had captured. A subjective frame can illustrate the photographers own personal expression, which is seen through many of Newton’s artworks such as that of his ‘Self Portrait with Wife and Models’ portraying his personal life leaving it open for the audience to interpret. This does sometimes merge with a structural frame as Newton’s subjects/objects are usually intentionally placed and include many motifs, the point of them is to give the audience the ultimate explanation intended behind what is being