Helmut Newton (1920–2004) is one of the most widely recognised and most published photographers of the 20th century, creating an unparalleled body of work over half a century. Born Helmut Neustädter in Berlin, he trained from 1936 with the portrait, nude and fashion photographer Yva. In 1938 he was forced to flee Germany, leaving Berlin with two cameras in his luggage. After years in Singapore and Australia, he settled in Paris in 1961 and began working for French »Vogue«. His first book, »White Women« (1976), carried his work beyond the magazine page and into museums worldwide. In 2000 the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin honoured him with a major retrospective for his 80th birthday. Shortly before his death, he returned to his native city with the Helmut Newton Foundation, housed in a building directly beside the station from which he had once fled.

Newton staged his photographs like scenes from a film: charged with tension, ambiguous and often provocative. At their centre are strong, self-assured women who meet the viewer’s gaze with confidence. Power, glamour and eroticism are recurring themes, explored with precision, wit and a sharp eye for the theatrical. His life-size »Big Nudes« from the early 1980s brought the scale of painting to photography, while the diptych »Sie kommen (Naked and Dressed)« (1981) set clothed and nude models side by side in identical poses, turning fashion photography into a reflection on seeing and being seen.

CAMERA WORK Gallery shares a special relationship with Helmut Newton. In 1997, his first exhibition at the gallery was curated in close collaboration with the photographer himself, followed by several further exhibitions. The »CAMERA WORK Portfolio«, developed jointly with Helmut Newton and featuring a selection of his works, continues to achieve record results on the international art market.