Newton, Helmut

PHOTOGRAPHER (GERMANY)
BORN 31 Oct 1920, Berlin: Innsbrucker Strasse 24 - DIED 23 Jan 2004, Los Angeles, California: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
BIRTH NAME Neustädter, Helmut
CAUSE OF DEATH car accident after heart attack
GRAVE LOCATION Berlin: Friedhof Schöneberg III, Stubenrauchstraße 43-45 (34-367 (ashes, four graves left of Marlene Dietrich))

Helmut Newton was born as Helmut Neustädter. He was the son of Max Neustädter, a Jewish button factory owner. He was twelve years old when he bought his first camera and in 1936 he started working for the photographer Yva (Elsie Neuländer Simon). In 1938 the family left Germany and his parents fled to South America. Newton boarded a ship in Trieste. He wanted to go to China but ended up in Singapore where he worked as a portrait photographer. In 1940 he arrived in Australia. He was interned until 1942. In 1945 he received the British nationality and changed his name to Newton. He married the actress June Brown in 1948, who became known as a photographer under the name of Alice Springs.

He had opened a studio in Melbourne in 1946 and worked there until he left for London in 1957. In London he worked for Vogue and he also worked in Paris. In 1959 he returned to Australia but in 1961 he settled in Paris with his wife to work as a fashion photographer. In 1970 he suffered a heart attack but supported by his wife he continued to work. For Playboy he shot pictorials of Nastassja Kinski and Kristine DeBell. He developed an erotic-urban style and published several books. In 2004 he had a car accident in Los Angeles when he came out of the Chateau Marmont Hotel and he died soon afterwards.

Images

The grave of Helmut Newton at the Dritte Schöneberger Friedhof, Berlin.
Picture by Androom (15 Nov 2004)

 


Ney de la Moskowa, Eglé

Published: 30 Sep 2018
Last update: 03 Jan 2022