Tag

Helmut newton

May 14

Farewell June Newton

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“Self-Portrait, Rue Aubriot, Paris, 1972” by June Newton

 

On April 9th, 2021, we bid farewell to June Newton as she joins her love Helmut on the other side.

She radiated with kindness, but well know for her ‘to the point’ demeanour. When I visited openings at the Helmut Newton Foundation I would leave a bottle of Port in her room at Berlin’s Savoy as a birthday gift. Even had the opportunity to join her birthday dinners, singing and all, after press opening parties at Berlin’s Paris Bar.

With Helmut’s resting place next to Marlene Dietrich at Berlin’s Friedhof Stubenrauchstraße , June has kept her humor at his funeral noting ”Don’t worry. I can squeeze in.” She did that as she was laid to rest. May they both rest in eternal peace.

 

Here I am with June and Ralph Gibson before the opening of “Wanted” at HNF in Berlin in 2007.

 

My favourite photographs from the June Newton archives:

 

June’s “Mrs Newton” collection published by Bededikt Taschen and personally signed to me in Berlin.

Oct 31

INSPIRED : The Centennial of Helmut Newton

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Today we celebrate the Centennial of Helmut Newton’s birth ( Born: October 31, 1920, Berlin). I deeply appreciate and admire his work, particularly understanding his early life in Berlin in the 1930’s that undoubtedly influenced his approach to his photographs.
Below is a collection of quotes that I transcribed from the latest documentary of his life (The Bad & The Beautiful) that collectively describes his work. For now, I will leave it at that.

Helmut Newton standing in Yva’s studio in Hotel Bogota, Berlin
Photograph taken by and gifted to me by Joachim Rissman

 

Tono Stano and Helmut Newton in Prague’s Staré Mĕsto Photograph gifted to me by Tono Stano

Quotes : The Bad & The Beautiful

_____

“You’re not going to get a lovely girl on a lovely beach. That’s not what he was about.”
Anna Wintour
_____
“For me it’s very unpleasant. Not the man, but the work. I don’t expect a man to look like his work; especially when it’s about fantasy and dreams.”
Susan Sontag
_____
“There is no neutrality…there is no right and wrong…everything is tainted with a point of view.”
Susan Sontag
_____
“It’s a passion. An obsession. He’s obsessed.”
June Newton
_____
“When I look at the pictures, they are different than me. It was his imagination. It was my imagination…”
Claudia Schiffer
_____
“It’s actually extraordinary Helmut was accepted by the industry because he was much more dangerous, much more ambiguous and frightening than an Avedon or a Penn”
Anna Wintour
_____
“It’s great to be a provocateur. That’s what the world needs, a form of provocation because it stimulates thoughts and it stimulates ideas.”
Charolette Rampling
_____
“In a lot of these pictures (with me and very big white men), they want me, but I’m not available. I am so close….”
Grace Jones
_____
“What we do in fashion…attraction and loveliness… the visions of loveliness…   do need work that is thought-provoking and sometime upset people.”
Anna Wintour
_____
“You express the idea… (he is not) photographing you, (he is) photographing an idea that is in his head…and you are the vehicle…”
Isabella Rosellinni
_____
“I learned to respect a piece of film…”
Helmut Newton
Aug 05

The Bad & The Beautiful

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David Lynch and Isabella Rossellini by Helmut Newton
There is no beauty without emotion
—-Diana Vreeland
With the cancellation of The Berlin and Tribeca Film Festivals, the new Helmut Newton documentary The Bad and The Beautiful (Gero von Boehm) is now available from several streaming services.
Released in the centennial year of his birth, it contains fresh footage not seen in previous documentaries Frames From The Edge and Helmut by June. While the later two documentaries are a bit more ‘fun’ to watch, I found this film provides more in depth commentary by several luminaries who add important flavour to understanding the man behind the images.
Below find some of my favorite quotes in the movie, but perhaps the series of comments not to overlook:
===================================
‘I grew up with the memory that if you crossed the road on a red light you were sent to a concentration camp… It was a strange time…we knew it was dangerous… I ran in the day and I tried to hide at night… but some people were very kind to me….there were some people whose cellars were full of Jews…’
— Helmut Newton
“What we do with memories…and all those things we actually deny…too heavy at the time….and they come through ourselves much later on…  and very often turn into an extraordinary form of art.”
— Charolette Rampling
====================================
And my favorite lines from the documentary…
You’re not going to get a lovely girl on a lovely beach. That’s not what he was about.
Anna Wintour
There is no neutrality…there is no right and wrong…everything is tainted with a point of view.
Susan Sontag
It’s a passion. An obsession. He’s obsessed.
June Newton
When I look at the pictures, they are different than me. It was his imagination. It was my imagination…
Claudia Schiffer
It’s great to be a provocateur. That’s what the world needs, a form of provocation because it stimulates thoughts and it stimulates ideas.
Charolette Rampling
In a lot of these pictures (with me and very big white men), they want me, but I’m not available. I am so close….
Grace Jones
You express the idea… (he is not) photographing you, (he is) photographing an idea that is in his head…and you are the vehicle…
Isabella Rosellinni
I learned to respect a piece of film…
Helmut Newton
Jul 25

Opening of the 20th anniversary exhibition of Helmut Newton’s SUMO

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Show Introduction commentary:
Dr Matthias Harder
Curator, Helmut Newton Foundation Berlin

Opening of the 20th anniversary exhibition of Helmut Newton’s SUMO and return of “Three Boys from Pasadena” ….. (l to r) Just Loomis, Benedikt Taschen, Dr Matthias Harder (Curator at the Helmut Newton Foundation) ….Ted and Matthias…… George Holz, Mark Arbeit, Joachim Rissmann. An exhibition of over 600 photographs including the entire SUMO collection.

ted@tedwitek.com

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