Big Nudes

Product Information

Newton’s forceful Big Nudes, after their first appearance in print as elements within his complex multi-image and multi-screen construction for Vogue, very soon assumed new roles as independent images in print and as artworks on a gallery wall. Within weeks of the publication of the Vogue shoot, the suite of five was published as independent images, with an interview and text in Artistes, a journal devoted to contemporary art, with "Big Nude III" (Variation), Paris on the cover. Newton’s Big Nudes found their editorial counterpoint in the sculptures of Richard Long (issue 7, January-February 1981). One year on from the Vogue feature, in October 1981, the suite featured prominently in an exhibition Helmut Newton Photographies 1980-81 that marked a step-change in Newton’s engagement with the broader art community and in public perceptions of him within that sphere. Staged by the Galerie Daniel Templon in Paris, this exhibition presented his most recent work in dramatic large formats, led by the unprecedented scale of the Big Nudes and with "Big Nude III" (Variation), Paris as the poster image. The term ‘iconic’ is used easily and often, but Sylvia Gobbel has taken part in the creation of truly groundbreaking, genre-defining, iconic images. Not just the muse of Helmut Newton–whose shots of her were instrumental in helping to establish fashion photography as a legitimate art form–over the span of her 40-year career Sylvia has worked with numerous legendary photographers. Here she takes us through five of her most memorable moments on film.

The exhibition presents over 200 images by Helmut Newton, one of the most important and famous photographers of the twentieth century. It collects together images from "White Women", "Sleepless Nights", and "Big Nudes", the first three books by Newton published at the end of the 1970s, books that are today considered legendary and which were the only ones to be edited by Newton himself. When selecting the photos, Newton interspersed a sequence, one next to another, of shots that had been commissioned with those he had made for himself, thus constructing a narrative which was a search for style, for the discovery of elegant gestures underpinned by the existence of a further reality, of something that it is up to the viewer to interpret. I just arrived in Paris in 1981 when my agency sent me to a casting for French Vogue with Helmut Newton. My Agency was Marilyn Gauthier Management and my booker Ulla Caramella. I wasn’t the model who had the look which was in fashion at the beginning of the eighties. Everybody thought I was too sophisticated. At that time they preferred natural, sporty, no makeup models from Sweden or the US. So when Helmut Newton was searching for a new face, Ulla, my booker, said, “That’s for you! You’re a Helmut Newton model.” And she was right.

Sex And Landscapes, Rosalyne, Making of the Big Nudes and Polaroids, A Gallery for Fine Art Photography, New Orleans The Big Nude series in fact had its origin in something Newton had observed. He has explained how in 1980 he came across a series of press photos showing the offices of the special branch of the German police responsible for catching the Bader-Meinhof terrorists. These showed full-length, life-size photographs of members of the group fixed to the walls, while other images were visible on computer monitors. These photos gave Newton an idea for a Vogue feature that would replicate the set-up but feature naked female figures instead of terrorists. His working title for the series was 'The Terrorists', but he soon changed this to 'The Big Nudes'. An open commission to shoot a series of nudes for a calendar for the magazine Myster gave him the opportunity to shoot a second series in 1990. Three further images were added in 1991 and a final series was executed in 1993 bringing the total sequence to XXI. 'Big Nude III' has become the undisputed icon of the series. In addition to the more than 100 prints displayed, the exhibit will feature two films about Newton. The current exhibition from the Helmut Newton Foundation, which had its first showing in the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, is dedicated to Newton's first three legendary publications. These early photographs, many of which went on to achieve iconic status, stand on the cusp between fashion and nude photography and were never shown together in his own lifetime. In Australia, Newton served five years with the Australian army and met his wife June Brunell, also a photographer, who later took up the name Alice Springs. From Australia, the couple moved to London for a short period, before in 1961 settling in the fashionable Marais district of Paris. 3. Newton ‘subverted the traditional conventions of fashion photography’

Helmut Newton is one of the most powerful and influential photographers of the past century – the place where art and fashion and subversion and aspiration all collide. If Newton’s work was controversial, I believe it’s because he expressed the contradictions within all of us, and particularly within the women he photographed so beautifully: empowerment mixed with vulnerability, sensuality tempered by depravity. Newton deepened our understanding of changing gender roles, of the ways in which beauty creates its own kind of power and corruption. On top of that, his compositions were brilliantly precise, cinematic in their scope and in their storytelling,” says Wallis Annenberg, Chairman of the Board, President and CEO of the Annenberg Foundation. Two years later he was forced to flee Germany as the Nazis carried out the " Kristallnacht" pogrom. With two cameras in his luggage, he fled to Australia via Singapore. He would never see his parents again. When I was 18, I was in Singapore and flat broke. The Singapore Straight Times offered me a job as a reporter. I had a beat-up Rolleiflex, but every time there was something to take a photo about, I got there too late. After two weeks they fired me, and for a long time I didn’t have any money. From Helmut Newton by Helmut Newton In all honesty, story and composition are more important than any technical aspect of the photograph or what camera he used.

My grades, in school, were deplorable, I was a dunce. Since my classes ended at 1 PM when I was fourteen years old, I got a job as an assistant to a photographer without telling my parents. This lasted for six months. My school grades became worse and worse; So finally, my father confiscated all my cameras and confined me to the house. By the time I was sixteen, my parents no longer had any hope. Helmut Newton – 1976 April/May issue of Penthouse Photo World Helmut the Apprentice From some of the photos I’ve studied, the notes state that he used his Nikon FM2 with a 50mm F1.4 AI-S. large retrospective for his 80th birthday in the New National Gallery (Neue Nationalgalerie) in Berlin that travels to London, New York, Tokyo, Moscow and Prague, among others. first exhibitions of the commercially successful photographer: first solo exhibit in the Nikon Gallery in Paris. After extensive research, I’ve compiled everything I could find out about Newton and his career into one easy to read post.

Newton often contrasted intimate evening outfits against the harsh light of day, as demonstrated here with "Elsa Peretti as a Bunny," where the philanthropist and jewellery designer wears a Halston bunny costume on a roof terrace in New York, 1975. Helmut Newton In 1946, Newton set up shop in fashionableFlinders Lane in Melbourneand worked in fashionand theatre photography in the affluent post-war years. June Brassai inspired me with his pictures of Paris by night. I thought those pictures were incredibly beautiful. I started doing a lot of fashion pictures at night in Paris, and since I’ve been in Monte Carlo I’ve been doing the same here. Night gives a very mysterious quality to a woman in the street. I love that. Other Photographers Work He Liked flees Berlin via train at Zoo station towards Trieste, taking with him two stills cameras. Finds work in Singapore at the Singapore Straits Times.In 1938, with Jews facing increasing hostility in Germany, Newton’s parents moved to South America, while Helmut set sail for China, disembarking en route in Singapore. There he worked briefly for TheStraits Times, before leaving for Melbourne in 1940. In the 1970s, his work for Vogue, Vanity Fair and Elle revolutionized fashion photography and paved the way for contemporary photography to become more creative and risky.