Autoportrait, Helmut Newton
(Part of Catherine Millet’s theme: (Auto)biography)

He was one of the most daring photographers of the twentieth century, probably the only one to have known a star's destiny.

Born Helmut Neustaedter into a middle-class Jewish family in Berlin, Helmut Newton was at first a spoiled child who didn't care about studies and was only interested in sex - for which he showed an early interest. When, at the age of twelve, he was given his first camera, it was love at first sight for an art form that would make him a worldwide celebrity. His life was eventful but always focused on one goal: to become a photographer.

Fleeing Germany in 1938, he found himself a gigolo in Singapore, then a prisoner and finally a soldier in Australia, where his artistic career, closely associated with the image of Vogue magazine, took off after the war... We recognize among a thousand others a photograph of Helmut Newton. His singular artistic vocabulary made him the inventor of a style. A style of which he gives us the keys here.
This book, richly illustrated with photos from Helmut Newton's collection, is more than a memoir. It is a true self-portrait, that of the artist as an eternal young dog.

Robert Laffont, 2004
Text in French
Soft cover
25 x 15 cm
314 pages
ISBN: 978-2-221-10105-6