Helmut Newton

While surfing the idiot box late last night, I stumbled upon "Stars - by Helmut Newton", on the Sundance Channel - an absolutely wonderful documentary about his work and "inner directions", with contributions, commentary and insights from his models and associates... and actual footage of Newton at work.
IMHO, he was one of the brightest lights in photography, not only for his work, but for his talent of creating/ enabling/ drawing out the genius in the work of his models. His ability to convey the inate strength of his models was beyond description.

"Stars ... " will be aired again, twice in January. I'll watch it again - I missed the first few minutes.
The Sundance schedule can be accessed at [http:Sundance Channel - What's On ]

I saw the entire show last night also, I'm not a fan of chains and torture eliciting but I realize that people enjoy watching women being chained and told to look like they are aggressive or mad or sullen. At least he didn't use the earths great landscape for subjects. All in all I would rather have watched how toilet paper is made than to watch that show again. The book Sumo was well received but it is not the German photographer using women to explore his degrading perversions. I can stand about anything but a diet of his work would not be healthy.

In Dallas, Texas, the Hotel ZaZa has Newton's work throughout the hallways. A matronly colleague of mine promptly checked out of the hotel.

I don't get his appeal- he's just way too stark, for one thing. I think his female nudes lack sensuality. It's all about shock value, in a 1970's wood-panelled basement home-porn-film kind of way. I don't see how his women are empowered in their nudity, his claims to the contrary aside. How is a woman with silicone implants and manicured pubic region empowered? Sounds more like a man's fantasy of female empowerment.

A friend loaned me a DVD of HM; and it was a definite turn-off. In one scene, he insults a model because her breast size didn't match his expectations.

I cant speak about the man himself, but I like his images a lot.