Helmut Newton

Dubbed the “King of Kink”, influential fashion photographer Helmut Newton made his name shooting models in striking, provocative black-and-white photographs for Vogue. “If a photographer says he is not a voyeur, he is an idiot,” he once said. 

Newton is considered to have imbued fashion photography with narrative depth, giving context to his subjects by creating stylized, dreamlike scenes. Vogue’s U.S. editor-in-chief Anna Wintour once described his work as “synonymous with Vogue at its most glamorous and mythic.” 

Newton was married to fellow photographer Alice Springs, and he led a glamorous life, associating with the likes of Billy Wilder, Dennis Hopper, and Robert Evans. He was particularly influential to the careers of the photographers Mark Arbeit, Just Loomis, and George Holz, who served as his assistants. In 1999, his now-famous book SUMO, was released by TASCHEN publishing house, chronicling decades of his most iconic work.