Lot Essay
Helmut Newton a trouvé sa maturité dans les années 1970 à Paris, et plus particulièrement dans les pages de l’édition française de Vogue, dont il fut un contributeur régulier de plus en plus incontournable. Le traumatisme d’une crise cardiaque survenue à New York en 1971 avait aiguisé sa détermination à s’investir tout entier dans son travail, puisant au plus profond de son expérience et de son imagination, et osant exprimer son insatiable curiosité, toujours habilement tempérée par son ironie, reflet de son sens inné du style. Francine Crescent, rédactrice en chef de Vogue, lui accorda une grande liberté de création, sachant qu’elle pouvait compter sur lui pour livrer des images et des séries photographiques qui pimenteraient le contenu éditorial du magazine.
Newton trouva en Paris une source d’inspiration intarissable, découvrant des lieux chargés d’histoire et d’atmosphère, et puisant dans sa fascination pour les gestes, le style, les manières et les habitudes d’un certain type de femmes. Les rues de la capitale la nuit revêtaient pour lui une magie particulière, confirmant son admiration pour les mystérieuses photographies nocturnes de Brassaï.
Le présent cliché, parmi les plus emblématiques de l’artiste, pris dans la rue où il habitait, est le fruit d’une séance photo pour Vogue lors de laquelle il photographia la femme habillée, seule. De ce cliché déjà provocateur par son ambiguïté sexuelle, Newton a fait une version « nue et habillée » à deux personnages, encore plus subversive, pour son propre portfolio et en ayant à l’esprit son premier livre, où cette variante finira effectivement par figurer.
Helmut Newton found his mature form in the 1970s in the city of Paris and most specifically in the pages of the French edition of Vogue, to which he was a regular and increasingly significant contributor. The trauma of a heart attack suffered in New York in 1971 had sharpened his determination to invest himself to the hilt in his work, drawing deep from the well of his experience and imagination, and daring to express his perverse curiosity, always shrewdly leavened by his wry humour, and reflecting his innate appreciation of style. Newton was allowed considerable creative freedom by Vogue editor Francine Crescent, who knew she could count on him to deliver images and picture stories that would add a provocative edge to the magazine’s editorial mix.
Newton found endless inspiration in Paris, discovering locations laden with history and atmosphere, and drawing on his fascinated observations of the gestures, style, manners, and habits of a certain class of woman. He found a particular magic in the streets of Paris at night, acknowledging his appreciation of the mysterious nocturnal images of Brassaï.
The present image, among Newton’s most emblematic, was made on the street where he lived, it was a by-product of a Vogue shoot for which he photographed the single, dressed figure. Already a provocative image through its sexual ambiguity, Newton made the still more subversive, two-figure, ‘naked and dressed’ version for his own portfolio with his first book in mind, in which it was indeed featured.
Newton trouva en Paris une source d’inspiration intarissable, découvrant des lieux chargés d’histoire et d’atmosphère, et puisant dans sa fascination pour les gestes, le style, les manières et les habitudes d’un certain type de femmes. Les rues de la capitale la nuit revêtaient pour lui une magie particulière, confirmant son admiration pour les mystérieuses photographies nocturnes de Brassaï.
Le présent cliché, parmi les plus emblématiques de l’artiste, pris dans la rue où il habitait, est le fruit d’une séance photo pour Vogue lors de laquelle il photographia la femme habillée, seule. De ce cliché déjà provocateur par son ambiguïté sexuelle, Newton a fait une version « nue et habillée » à deux personnages, encore plus subversive, pour son propre portfolio et en ayant à l’esprit son premier livre, où cette variante finira effectivement par figurer.
Helmut Newton found his mature form in the 1970s in the city of Paris and most specifically in the pages of the French edition of Vogue, to which he was a regular and increasingly significant contributor. The trauma of a heart attack suffered in New York in 1971 had sharpened his determination to invest himself to the hilt in his work, drawing deep from the well of his experience and imagination, and daring to express his perverse curiosity, always shrewdly leavened by his wry humour, and reflecting his innate appreciation of style. Newton was allowed considerable creative freedom by Vogue editor Francine Crescent, who knew she could count on him to deliver images and picture stories that would add a provocative edge to the magazine’s editorial mix.
Newton found endless inspiration in Paris, discovering locations laden with history and atmosphere, and drawing on his fascinated observations of the gestures, style, manners, and habits of a certain class of woman. He found a particular magic in the streets of Paris at night, acknowledging his appreciation of the mysterious nocturnal images of Brassaï.
The present image, among Newton’s most emblematic, was made on the street where he lived, it was a by-product of a Vogue shoot for which he photographed the single, dressed figure. Already a provocative image through its sexual ambiguity, Newton made the still more subversive, two-figure, ‘naked and dressed’ version for his own portfolio with his first book in mind, in which it was indeed featured.