I realise that it's been ages since the last post, but my life at the moment is completely occupied
with my internship, London life and socialising, so I haven’t really had the
chance to write anything. However, after
a long couple of weeks I have decided to embrace this beautiful weather and
spend a day in the garden – the perfect opportunity to write!
So I have this wall
at home that is completely covered in pictures I have collected over the years
from magazines like Vogue, I.D.,
Wonderland, etc. This wall is
completely plastered top to toe in pictures and it’s taken me a bloody long
time to do. It’s a point of conversation
and everyone always looks for what’s new every time they go in my room (the
beauty of the wall is that they’ll be pictures that have been there for months
or years and people are still only just discovering them). Basically, my wall is fucking legend.
...At this point you may
be wondering why the hell I am going on about my wall (it’s relevant, I
promise).
People always ask me
how I choose the pictures on my wall, and I can honestly never actually give
them a coherent answer. The sources of
the majority of my pictures are from fashion magazines or photographers I like,
for example Robert Doisneau is a pretty consistent feature. But the thing is, I absolutely hate it when
the pictures look like a fashion picture (this is part of the reason I love
Robert Doisneau so much – his photographs are so effortless and manage to
perfectly capture spontaneous moments of the people of Paris without seeming
contrived). A picture only makes the
wall if it catches my eye and constantly surprises me and just is the perfect
fashion photograph...without looking like a fashion photograph. Up until recently I could not have given you
a reason as to why this is. And then I
visited the Helmut Newton exhibition at the Museum of Fine Art in
Budapest. I have always loved his
photography, but after visiting this I realised that the man was a bloody
genius. Within seconds of entering the
exhibition, there was a quote of his on the wall that perfectly summed up my
thoughts when it comes to photography:
“A perfect fashion photo does not look like a fashion photo, but more
like a still from a film, a portrait or a memento photo – anyhow at all, just
not like a fashion photo.”
It may seem like a simple quote, but YES. JUST YES.
The exhibition was split into 3 sections, each representing a
major part of his life and career. First
off was Private Property, an intimate
series of his work from 1972-1983 that both overlapped and combined fashion,
portraiture and erotica. This work in
particular was his most controversial, but it is how he made a name for himself
and you can see why. The photography is
sublime. The whole concept behind each
photograph is so clearly “I don’t give a fuck” but each is executed with such
nonchalant elegance that it makes the work so acutely unique.
The second part of the exhibition was Helmut Newton’s Illustrated which showed photographs from the
magazine that he published between 1987 and 1995. A new magazine was published, according to
Newton, “whenever I feel I have something to say with my camera.” This resulted in editions of Helmut Newton’s Illustrated named Sex and Power and True and False, investigating issues and inspirations that Newton
felt the need to portray to the world through a Newton-tinted lens. The work was similar to Private Property in the way that, despite the widespread
publication of these pictures into the mainstream press, the photographs still
managed to maintain the level of intimacy that became a signature of Newton’s
work.
The final section of the exhibition was A Gun For Hire, which was a collection of Newton’s photographs from
several decades of working for fashion houses such as Versace, YSL, Bluemarine
and magazines including Vogue. It was in this exhibit where Newton’s
adaptability was revealed. He always
cited magazines as being his “laboratory” which allowed him to experiment and
try out new ideas, but he clearly always kept the client in mind. From his classic Chanel images to the more
controversial Thierry Mugler shots, the true diversity of his images and talent
is so clear.
The exhibition was the perfect summarisation of six decades
of fantastic photography. It gave an
insight into the way he lived and breathed his work, and his passion to give
the world something new to talk about. His
work commanded attention from everyone and was so undeniably unique that it
completely changed the face of fashion photography, paving the way
photographers today. If photography is
your thing, the exhibition is amazing.
When it comes to the UK, it’s 100% worth a visit.
...Holly
