PREVIOUSLY UNSEEN, NAKED AT THE SWIMMING POOL:

Glamour, opulence and celebrities: These three catchwords connect Helmut Newton, Mario Testino and Jean Pigozzi and their oeuvres. Few photographers have been as influential in contemporary fashion photography as these three masters. From June 2017 the Helmut Newton Foundation presents an exhibition with works by the three portrait and fashion photographers, who were close friends.

Mario Testino. He is considered one of the most important fashion and portrait photographers of our times. His images appear in magazines like Vogue, V Magazine, or Vanity Fair. Testino made Kate Moss the icon of the model scene and the big fashion star of the 90s. Furthermore, he managed again and again to create emblematic images for fashion and beauty brands like Gucci, Burberry, and Versace, as well as Chanel, Estée Lauder and Lancôme, and thus contributed to their success.

The first part of the exhibition presents Testino’s installation “Undressed”:  Fashion shots and nude photographs are shown which deal with our favourite topic: undressing. Fifty studio portraits, some of which were never publicly presented before, are installed in the exhibition space, reaching from floor to ceiling. This extraordinary way of presenting the work was chosen to fill the space with bodies and emotions, which are unparalleled in Testino’s work and the exhibition history, as the Helmut Newton Foundation stresses.

The master of artful nudity

Original prints of a wide range of formats by Helmut Newton have been selected from the foundation’s archive and will be presented under the title “Unseen”, which indicates that some of the works have never been published.  Among the pictures is one of actor Jeremy Irons at the London Ritz and – maybe less glamorous but visually appealing – one of swimmer Michael Gross in Dortmund’s swim stadium.

As if he had anticipated his death by accident in 2004, Helmut Newton founded the Helmut Newton Foundation in 2003 to keep the legacy of his work alive and to provide other photographers with a platform for their art. The foundation is situated in various rooms in Berlin’s old Landwehrkasino, close to “Bahnhof Zoo”. Berlin was not a random choice as the home of the foundation, because Newton (then still bearing the surname Neustädter) lived there until he was 18. In 1938, he fled the city, to which he felt a strong connection until the end of his life, from the Nazis to Australia.

Pool party with top celebrities

We join Jean Pigozzi for a pool party in the exhibition. Jump right in with Excellent Escorts and relish the small-scale photographs that look like private snapshots. All of them were taken at Pigozzi’s swimming pool at Cap d’Antibes. Many well-known characters came to relax here, like Mick Jagger, Bono, Liz Taylor, and Naomi Campbell… but also Helmut Newton with his wife June.

As a teenager Jean Pigozzi began to consciously develop works with his Leica camera and created a diary-like style. In intense observations, he documented the life of the upper class. Pigozzi shows the personnel of his sophisticated “snapshots” openly and intimately. Among the photographed are friends like Andy Warhol, Anjelica Huston, or Diane von Fürstenberg. Pigozzi often appears in his photographs himself and thus underscores the role of the camera as a tool to connect to the world.

The exhibition is complimented by the catalague “Mario Testino. Undressed” published by TASCHEN-Verlag. In 2016 “Johnny Pigozzi. Pool Party” was released by Rizzoli New York.

Exhibition facts

Opening: Friday 2^nd of June 2017, 8 PM
Duration: 3^rd of June – 19^th of November 2017

Helmut Newton Stiftung

Museum für Fotografie

Jebensstraße 2, 10623 Berlin, Germany
www.helmutnewton.com