Helmut Newton

Helmut Newton is most remembered for his Le Smoking image of a model in a man's suit - highly controversial at the time. The photograph represented a departure from the views on women that were held of the time. Although feminism has done leaps and bounds in order to give women equal rights, there continues to be a prevalent, significant disparity between men and women - a battle which as of yet has no real end in sight. As a previous post of mine on suits has shown, I have particular love of this idea of power and masculinity, if not for stylish purposes maybe just because we can!

But anyway, back to Helmut Newton. In fashion he is most notably known for his use of polaroid. A dying form of photography, largely due to Polaroid's withdrawal from the market in 2008, as a consequence of the growth of emerging digital technologies, results are incredibly different. The ability to immediately see the picture was the main attraction to Newton.


His photographs are strong and bold which caused a substantial amount of controversy at the time. Although some of his images portray women in a position of power, branded 'porno chic', Newton faced a lot of negative attention from radical feminists. I guess it's a fair argument that nudes are objectifying, the way in which Newton photographed women was completely different, showing their strength and complete control of their sexuality. To me his images are striking and daring, pushing the boundaries by featuring nude women and violence.