Helmut Newton, Sex and Landscapes
Introduction to the book 'Helmut Newton. Sex & Landscapes. By Philippe Garner.
Page 1 2
Sex and Landscapes was conceived in 2001 as the inaugural show for the new Zurich gallery of Helmut's dealers de Pury & Luxembourg. The show had been scheduled but a theme had yet to be determined. The conventional dealer wisdom was that most collectors of Helmut's work would prefer to stick with the sophisticated, sexually charged imagery with which they were familiar. Discussion led to the question from Simon de Pury "What else do you have?" to which Helmut answered "My landscapes, but nobody wants to see those." De Pury asked to see some, and backed his hunch that these would prove an exciting and welcome revelation. The idea of introducing the landscapes evolved into the concept of a mix that would balance these with a selection of Helmut's tougher sex pictures that had so far been kept under wraps, waiting for an appropriate context. Sex and Landscapes became a fluid concept that has been expanded over time with thirty further images to bring it to its present strength.
And so we can experience Helmut's world of dark, brooding seas, baroque statuary, crashing waves, a long desert highway under threatening skies, a Berlin park at dusk, enigmatic apartment buildings at night, the Rhine seen from the air, the shadows of airplanes, all this interwoven with hard and voyeuristic sexual imagery, plus a touch of his high style and glamour.
Helmut was always willing to talk about the making of his pictures, enjoyed the anecdotes involved, but avoided being drawn into explanation or analysis. Everything he had to say - his point of view on the world - was there in the pictures. He felt, rightly, that they should speak for themselves. And if the pictures are rich in potential readings it is because their creator was expressing fully the complexities and contradictions in his own nature. If one were to think of the high-profile magazine pictures for which Helmut is so well known as the building bricks of his archive, then one might describe the landscapes and related images as the mortar that somehow binds the whole together, that completes the edifice. If the pictures are the man, then these less familiar works assume a considerable significance in giving a fuller sense of that man - they help present Helmut Newton in the round.
Philippe Garner
London, April 2004
Page 1 2
Page 1 2
Sex and Landscapes was conceived in 2001 as the inaugural show for the new Zurich gallery of Helmut's dealers de Pury & Luxembourg. The show had been scheduled but a theme had yet to be determined. The conventional dealer wisdom was that most collectors of Helmut's work would prefer to stick with the sophisticated, sexually charged imagery with which they were familiar. Discussion led to the question from Simon de Pury "What else do you have?" to which Helmut answered "My landscapes, but nobody wants to see those." De Pury asked to see some, and backed his hunch that these would prove an exciting and welcome revelation. The idea of introducing the landscapes evolved into the concept of a mix that would balance these with a selection of Helmut's tougher sex pictures that had so far been kept under wraps, waiting for an appropriate context. Sex and Landscapes became a fluid concept that has been expanded over time with thirty further images to bring it to its present strength.
And so we can experience Helmut's world of dark, brooding seas, baroque statuary, crashing waves, a long desert highway under threatening skies, a Berlin park at dusk, enigmatic apartment buildings at night, the Rhine seen from the air, the shadows of airplanes, all this interwoven with hard and voyeuristic sexual imagery, plus a touch of his high style and glamour.
Helmut was always willing to talk about the making of his pictures, enjoyed the anecdotes involved, but avoided being drawn into explanation or analysis. Everything he had to say - his point of view on the world - was there in the pictures. He felt, rightly, that they should speak for themselves. And if the pictures are rich in potential readings it is because their creator was expressing fully the complexities and contradictions in his own nature. If one were to think of the high-profile magazine pictures for which Helmut is so well known as the building bricks of his archive, then one might describe the landscapes and related images as the mortar that somehow binds the whole together, that completes the edifice. If the pictures are the man, then these less familiar works assume a considerable significance in giving a fuller sense of that man - they help present Helmut Newton in the round.
Philippe Garner
London, April 2004
Page 1 2
