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Photographer Helmut Newton Killed in Crash


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from Yahoo News:

LOS ANGELES - Acclaimed photographer Helmut Newton was killed in a car crash Friday, police said. He was 83.

Newton, a fashion photographer whose work appeared in magazines such as Playboy, Elle and Vogue, was best known for his stark, black-and-white nude photos.

Newton lost control of his Cadillac while leaving the Chateau Marmont hotel in Hollywood and crashed into a wall across the street, said Officer April Harding, a police spokeswoman.

Before hitting the wall, the car brushed an Associated Press photographer who was arriving at the hotel on an unrelated assignment.

Newton was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he died a short time later, Harding said.

Newton, who was Jewish, fled Germany for Singapore in December 1938, a month after Nazi-led pogroms. He eventually settled in Australia and became a citizen, then took up residence in Monte Carlo.

Edited by Evan
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Catch Swordfish's Alternate Poster Image

An alternate shot of the poster from renowned photographer Helmut Newton.

May 31, 2001 -

"My job as a portrait photographer is to seduce, amuse and entertain. There is no hidden message in my photos. They are quite simple and don't need any explanation. If by chance they seem a little complex or if you need a while to understand them, it's because they are full of details."

- Helmut Newton

Like Annie Leibovitz and Herb Ritts, Helmut Newton has photographed his share of celebrities, only he was doing so long before Leibovitz and Ritts were in the game. And at eighty, he's still going strong.

I should add that Newtons's initial noteriety didn't happen by photographing the well-known, the rich and the famous. Thirty years prior to Ritts, it was, similarly, Newton's controversial fashion photos that caused a stir. His black and white images of female models, sometimes nude, in bizzare poses were intended to be shocking. It was exhibitionism, but at highest aesthetic level; expert manipulations of light and shadows. He's a master of black and white photography.

One of his recent photos is the alternate version of the Swordfish poster; featuring the cast: John Travolta as Gabriel Shear; Don Cheadle as Agent Roberts; Hugh Jackman as Stanley Jobson; and Halle Berry as Ginger. (click here to view the original poster). Thanks to Warner Brothers, we're able to have a look at an alternate version of Newton's poster photo. Here you'll notice Travolta isn't holding the gun, Jackman's arms are crossed, and Cheadle is standing away from the wall.

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Very sad news. A great photographer goes away!

He leaves an amazing legacy.

Very recently, Helmut Newton made a selection of his photos available free to the 'Reporters Sans Frontieres' (Reporters Without Borders) organisation for their annual book the profits of which go to the welfare of imprisoned journalists around the world.

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Great photographer.

His photographs were considered in the same catagory as some of Robert Mapplethorpe's more controversial work. Both broke new ground, although both disturbed the viewer, which was the point. However both photographers had wonderful eyes and showed us what they saw.

RIP Helmut Newton.

Edited by patricia
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"Photo novel" ... is that like a graphic novel? If so, that actually sounds pretty cool to me.

Chrome, I don't know what a "graphic novel" is, and neither do I know the correct word for what was published in today's FAZ. In german you call this "Photo-Roman". It's sort of like a comic (with text beneath instead of inside pics), telling a story. Hope this is understandeable!

ubu

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