Destinacija / Destination
honoring a great artist Berlin remembers Helmut Newton A retrospective of one of the 20 th century’s greatest artists shows why this legendary photographer is still an exemplary master of shock, and you’ll be able to enjoy the exhibition until mid-May
during the era in which he created – isn’t a pretty housewife from an advertisement or a polished cover girl. She is the heroine of her own life, who wordlessly but unambigu- ously presents herself to us as pow- erful and dangerous. The exhibition includes around 300 works (half of which are being shown for the first time) and the public will finally get to see many lesser-known photographs – includ- ing a number of his more uncon- ventional fashion photographs that are surprising in the context of the period when they were created. Al- though Newton also shot in colour, it seems that the mentioning of his name and fascinating legacy prompts us to think of the kind of dance of light and shadow that’s provided by black and white contrast. One curios fact is that Newton distinctly disliked shooting in a studio. While work- ing for well-known fashion maga- zines like Vogue France, which he generously lent his creative charis- ma to during the 1960s and ‘70s,
of the museum, the retrospective chronologically traces his life and the visual legacy he bequeathed to the world. What made Helmut a legend, with the kind of superiority in sub- version and perfectionism of portrai- ture that are seen only once in a gen- eration, wasn’t only ground-breaking talent refined through an elaborative familiarity with visual art - but also unbridled inquisitiveness in evok- ing the intimate nature of the per- sonalities who found themselves in front of his camera lens. Yes, the central point of his oeuvre is occupied by images of the 20 th century’s most beautiful models. These women, along with the unu- sual angles from which he captured them and the dramatic lighting he used, gave each of his many iconic scenes the quality of a still shot from some unrecorded film masterpiece, and imbued in every model the aura of a glamorous Amazon warrior in a world that’s almost beneath her. His woman – in contrast to the domi- nant style of fashion photography
B erlin, a city that had spe- cial significance to this artist, has reciprocated by staging an impressive retrospective exhibition entitled Helmut Newton, Legacy. In- itially planned for the pandemic year of 2020, which marked the cente- nary of Newton’s birth, it was post- poned for justifiable reasons and has now finally seen the light of day in this German metropolis’s Museum of Photography. Set up on the spacious first floor
100 | Berlin » Berlin
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