This is the sixth cache in a series based on famous photographers who's work I admire. Since starting geocaching my time for photography has been somewhat reduced so this is my attempt at combining the two interests.
Le Smoking, 1975
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Helmut Newton (1920- 2004) Was born in Berlin to a German- Jewish button factory owner and an American mother. Newton showed an early interest in photography however this was interrupted by the war and in 1938 he fled Germany to Singapore and then to Australia in 1940. After a brief internment Newton worked as a fruit picker and army truck driver before becoming an Australian citizen in 1945.
In 1946, Newton set up a studio in fashionable Flinders Lane and worked on fashion and theater photography in the affluent post-war years. Newton's growing reputation as a fashion photographer was rewarded when he secured a commission to illustrate fashions in a special Australian supplement for Vogue magazine, published in 1956. He won a 12-month contract with British Vogue and left for London in 1957.
Newton settled in Paris in 1961 and continued work as a fashion photographer. His works appeared in magazines including, most significantly, French Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. He established a particular style marked by erotic, stylized scenes, often with sado-masochistic and fetishistic subtexts. A heart attack in 1970 slowed Newton's output, but his notoriety continued to increase, most notably with his 1980 "Big Nudes" series, which marked the pinnacle of his erotic-urban style, underpinned with excellent technical skills.
To some in the fashion world Newton was the “Prince of Porn” and “King of Kink" however Robert Sobieszek, photo dept. chief at the L.A. County Museum of Art, noted to the L.A. Times: "His work was never dirty ... but he stretched the boundaries of what a fashion magazine looked like." Helmut Newton images depicting women in men's clothing and depicting them as powerful figures, breaking all the moulds built by society, made heads turn, It also led some people to ask for his head to roll. Even with all the controversy, he continued pushing the envelope in photographing women by taking images of nude bodies in provocative positions. It may have been met by scrutiny and rage in the beginning, but it eventually became the industry standard. His unconventional images of femme fatales made Helmut Newton a legend in fashion photography.