Indulge In The Mischievous Mastery Of Provocateur Helmut Newton Via Decadent Taschen Book And Berlin Retrospective

Debra Winger captured the world’s attention in 1983, when she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as Emma, a young woman who marries an immature young college professor to escape her mother in the critically-acclaimed family comedy-drama Terms of Endearment. The honor went to her co-star, Shirley MacLaine, who played the mother. The same year Winger began a two-year romantic relationship with Bob Kerrey, at the time the Governor of Nebraska, whom she met while filming Terms of Endearment in Lincoln. 

Winger, whose first screen role was portraying Debbie in the 1976 sexploitation film Slumber Party '57, rose to prominence in 1982, co-starring with Nick Nolte in Cannery Row and with Richard Gere in An Officer and a Gentleman, for which she was first nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. 

Born 1955 in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, into a working-class Orthodox Jewish family, Winger emerged as a Hollywood darling in her late 20s. A smoldering close-up depiction of the celebrated actress with a lit unfiltered cigarette dangling from her bottom lip emphasizes her rise to stardom. Her face cocked slightly, she gazes directly at the viewer, projecting a powerful, seductive, irreverent attitude. 

It’s a visceral shot by Helmut Newton that defies the normative, with freckles obvious, along with a line around her mouth, and small scar on her cheek. A car accident when she was 18 caused a cerebral hemorrhage and left her partially paralyzed and blind for 10 months. She had just returned to the United States from an Israeli kibbutz.

The inimitable Newton (1920–2004) shows us the deliciously darker side of Winger in this sumptuous black-and-white 1983 portrait that serves as the cover for Helmut Newton. Legacy, a 424-page TASCHEN lush tome celebrating five decades of the unrivaled master’s oeuvre. Widely recognized for his glamorous shots in magazines like Vogue and Elle, this career retrospective features beloved images alongside newly-rediscovered photographs from the prolific visionary lensman. Available now for $100, the imposing book weighing in at 6.69 pounds and measuring 9.4-inches-by-13.4-inches, will delight fans of art photography and fashion. 

Newton’s brazen ethos is underscored by the simple back cover, emblazoned with his declarative quote: “I am not an artist, I am a photographer,” precisely set on the top of the all-black book jacket and elegantly embossed in silver all-caps font. I respectfully disagree with his pithy self-portrayal, arguing he’s indeed a world-leading artist who engaged with his subjects to cajole more than just beauty, while infusing wit and layering cultural references. 

The book accompanies an international exhibition tour of Newton’s career, also named HELMUT NEWTON. LEGACY, on view at the Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin through May 22, 2022. The retrospective chronologically traces the life and visual legacy of the Berlin-born photographer showcasing some 300 works, half of which are on public view for the first time The foundation’s curator Matthias Harder will present lesser-known aspects of Newton’s wide-reaching achievements, including many of his wildly unconventional, controversial fashion photographs. Also on view are Polaroids and contact sheets delving into his creative process, along with special publications, archival material, and quotes from Newton, who never hesitated to push boundaries and shock viewers. 

These images encapsulate rare, elaborate glimpses into high fashion and celebrity, lavishing us with shots of the twentieth century’s most influential cultural innovators such as David Bowie and Andy Warhol, along with a dazzling array of supermodels and leading actresses, through the gaze of an artist who unapologetically called himself a professional voyeur.  

The unblushing TASCHEN book is written and edited by Matthias Harder, who became director of the Helmut Newton Foundation in 2019, after serving as its head curator beginning in 2004. Harder is also a member of the German Society of Photography, and an advisory council member of the European Month of Photography. 

Contributing author Philippe Garner is an expert in 20th-century photography, design, and decorative art. He has written numerous essays and books, from studies of the lives of designer Émile Gallé and photographers Cecil Beaton and John Cowan, to his Sixties Design for TASCHEN. A former director of Christie’s, he has curated museum exhibitions in London, Paris, and Tokyo.