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Helmut Newton (31st October 1920 – 23rd January 2004) was a German-Australian photographer who specialised in fashion but went on to take photos of nude women. As Jesse McKinley wrote, he was a “prolific, widely imitated fashion photographer whose provocative, erotically charged black-and-white photos were a mainstay of Vogue and other publications”.

From the 1950s to 1983, Newton had a loyal relationship with French Vogue during which he also worked for Marie Claire, Nova, Italian Vogue, Elle, Queen...etc. You can be sure that Newton never found himself without his np20 charger! In the 1970’s, Helmut’s photography changed drastically. Helmut pursued an overtly sexual theme in his work with a menacing edge taken from his own difficult history as a Jewish exile from war-time Germany. In his pictures, women were depicted as bolder and more aggressive, usually in rather disquieting situations. His models were often shown to be members of the social elite but captured in very seedy environments pursuing erotic fantasies with cross-dressers and prostitutes. Censored in America, Newton said; “The term ‘political correctness’ has always appalled me, reminding me of Orwell’s ‘thought police’ and fascist regimes.”