I left with an impression of strength exuded by most of the images of women, though less so in the more avant garde fashion photos. Today’s world seems to confer an alternate universe feel on many of the photos.īetter minds than mine can comment on the gender politics around Newton’s work.
Perhaps our perspective on lifestyles and aspirations have become recalibrated by COVID and Ukraine. The aesthetics of the fashion shoots truly seem to come from a different time. Some people hate them and hate what I do. Newton himself said, when asked to define his photographs in a 1997 interview with Alain Elkann:Įach one speaks for itself. Or his dance between commercialism and art. The exhibition traces Newton’s chronological and thematic photographic journey from the early years and the crystallisation of his style in 1960s Paris onwards, with an emphasis on his fashion shots, nudes, and portraits.Īs such, you have plenty of opportunity to judge, for example, his testing of the edges of social acceptability, morality, and creative possibilities. Newton is, obviously, one of them, thanks to, for example, his fashion and portrait work. But only a few have lifted themselves above the morass to establish that elusive name recognition. Smartphones mean we’re all photographers these days. The Helmut Newton Legacy exhibition fills a winter 2022/2023 slot with some 250 works that mark the full range of Newton’s creative output. Thankfully, the Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien’s retrospective, a cooperation with the Helmut Newton Foundation, is a pleasure delayed and not denied. A perfect date for a suitable exhibition, were it not for the peculiar circumstances of the times. October 31st, 2020 was the 100th birthday of the Berlin-born photographer Helmut Newton (1920 – 2004). (Helmut Newton Fashion, Melbourne, 1955 © Helmut Newton Foundation)
0 kommentar(er)
