Helmut Newton: Photographer

During our first meeting, we discussed creatives in the whole industry, from designers to photographers to stylists: people that influenced ourselves and people that we were reminded by in terms of our theme and our idea.

When thinking about the idea of women, Marie mentioned the photographer, Helmut Newton and an image she remembered seeing that portrayed an idea of women as lifeless models or mannequins.

When looking at said image, you can clearly understand this. Their limbs look very static and constructed. Their expression is the same when their clothes are on and off. I do think though, that when the women are in their clothing they evoke more strength than they do in the nude shots. May be the clothes add to this feeling: the clothing also helps in portraying certain personality traits from the women.

Helmut Newton was a photographer, (known for his nude studies of women) that really played with the idea of the role of the woman: the very famous Paris shot, of a model dressed in masculine wear, which hinted at the role of gender and sexuality, was such a controversial image at that time because of the theme to it. He established a particular style marked by erotic, stylised scenes, often with sado-masochistic and subtexts. Newton, in this respect, would be a great person to research for our project.