Theme 1 Research 1 Helmut Newton

So the 1st Photographer I have chosen to research is Helmut Newton, there is a couple of reason for this, first is he was on the list to choose from, and second I'm on a site called redbubble, and one of the photographers on there did a self portrait, which was similar to some of Helmuts work, and another photographer pointed this out, so I looked him up then, and like his work.
I'm going to write about the Person 1st, then I'll add the 10 images I have chosen to look at and analyse them.

Helmut Newton was born in Berlin in 1920,  his family were both wealthy and Jewish, He saved his money in order to buy his 1st camera at the age of 12. In 1936 he purposefully had himself thrown out of school, due to being a "hopeless student", and with the help of his mother, started working with Else Simon, A female fashion/portrait Photographer at her studio Yva.

In the early 1940's Helmut moved to Australia, where he enlisted in the army and served for 5 years, before moving to Melbourne, and determined to become a photographer for a living he opened a studio, and took on any photography work that paid.
Whilst in Australia, he met and later married an Actress by the name of June Brown.

In 1952 Helmut started working for Australian Vogue Magazine, which in 1957 meant a move to London sort term. However Helmut never felt that whilst in Australia and London his work was any good, and it wasn't until he arrived in Paris that he knew it was the place for him.

Whilst there he worked for many magazines, Starting with Jardin Des Modes in the late 1950's before starting a long association with French Vogue. (1961-1983)
During this time period he would also work for, The United states and Italian Vogue, Marie Claire, Elle, Playboy and others.

Whilst in New York in 1971 Helmut suffered a heart attack, which would help trigger a change in his Photography, along with the encouragement from his wife.
He started to pursue more overtly sexual themes, and this helped him to become one of the most influential fashion photographers of his time. His images became more intense with his models being shown as members of the higher class, yet caught in compromising situations, and often shot in a realistic reportage style.


His work would also achieve him many honours from all over the world including, Tokyo art Directors' club prize, American institute of graphic arts award, and Germany's Kodak award for photographic books. In 1989 he was awarded Chevalier Des arts et Des lettres by the french minister of culture. in 1999 Life magazine gave him the Life Legend award for lifetime achievement in magazine photography. There are also many more.

For the last 25 years of his life Helmut and his wife June lived in Los Angeles in the winter and the rest of the year in Monte Carlo, which is where in 2004 after a tragic car crash he died at the age of 84.

So this is the 1st image of his I have chosen to look at.
To me it's quite a tight crop, the main focal point being the woman's face, mainly the eyes in the mirror. The contrast is quite dark, with a deep black in the top of the mirror, and not many whites, more greys throughout the rest of the image.
A shallow depth of field is also present, which helps to keep your eyes focused on the main subject, rather than the background.
 

This image is so I'm led to believe from my research, an iconic image, taken of one of Yves Saint Laurent's ladies suits, the Photo name I believe is Le Smoking.
Both Helmut and Yves were at the same time opening the eyes of the world to the fact that women were as powerful as men, and didn't always have to be wearing frilly dresses, and this was controversial at the time.
I can see how this image would of been so, not only is there a woman in "men's" style clothing, but then another woman, naked in the street.
This image uses straight lines, from the legs of the woman in the suit to the street going straight back and the buildings going straight up.
It's brightly lit with again the only little bit of black in the image really being the suit. The depth of field is deep to allow the street to be in focus, yet the focal point is definitely the 2 women. The tonal range, although it is a black and white image is quite wide, with Blacks, Greys and Whites all present. The framing is quite wide as well, allowing you to see the fact that there in a street, helping add to the controversy, yet still a fairly simple composition.

This image is probably only one of few that has more than 2 main subjects, the main focal point is the ladies legs, that lead your eyes upwards to them holding hands, then across to the man. I think the denotation of this is of strength in numbers, as the women are holding hands as if they have done something wrong and are about to be punished for it. It has a busier composition with a lot more of a detail background than a lot of his other work, this background can been seen due to the deep Depth of field.
The tonal range again for black and white has a lot of shades between the blacks and white, so I would say it has a fairly bright contrast. There doesn't seem to be a use of any shape in particular, though looking harder maybe there is a lot of straight lines?

This image is another close cropped/framed photo, with another fairly simple composition. The main focal point my eye is drawn to is the smoke coming out of her mouth. I would say this image shows a definite use of curves, From the smoke to her wavy  hair, to the monocle and the string hanging from it, and even to the round end of the cigar, and the stones in the wall behind.
The depth of field is slightly more towards shallow, so the wall behind can be seen but isn't the main focal point of the image. Fairly bright, with again not many blacks, or shadows, but that's mainly due to the subject being the ladies face.
In my opinion I would say the Denotation of this is sex sells.

This image has a very deep depth of field, allowing the subject and background to be in focus, with the main focal point being the woman lighting the cigarette. Wide frame to allow the background to be seen, as the composition of it, is quite a busy background.
The tonal range is quite varied, right through from blacks to greys to whites, I think there is a use of shapes in the image, as the dancers arms and 1 leg are positioned to make Triangles which I think help lead your eyes away from the lighting of the cigarette, down to her feet/shoes making you aware that she is a dancer.
I'm not overly sure of the Denotation or Connotation of this image.

This image is for me has quite a strong Denotation, I think it is saying that there is a sense of being free and careless even in a big built up city.
The tonal range looked at first to be quite limited to just blacks and whites, but looking at it for longer, the top of the window is more grey then white, and so is the model herself, with just the lit up windows of the surrounding buildings being bright white spots in the background. The background itself is slightly out of focus, but not to the point of it being unable to be made out/understood. The framing of this photo is wide enough to allow the background to be seen, but still cropped tight to the models head and feet so she remains the focal point of the image.

This image is one of Helmuts later colour images, so there is more of a tonal range than the above images that I have looked at, though still not a lot of colours, as the model is wearing black and the wall she is leaning on almost white, but the sky is blue, and you get the skin tone coming through the black tights, and even a slight hit of green from the trees in the top left of the image.
The focal point is the legs that lead up to the models bottom, and these are position to go with all the other straight lines in the image, from the join of the wall to path, the line through the path, the top line of the wall and even the building in the background being square, so itself is made of straight lines.
The composition is fairly simple, with only the house/hotel/building in the background to complicate the image, but even this is not where your eye is drawn first, due to the depth of field allowing it to be slightly out of focus, so I would say a middle of the range depth of field.

This image I think has a deep Denotation/Connotation, it to me is portraying how we look at ourselves, and how we see others. So the model to me is holding the mirror and possibly looking down at it and herself,(how we see ourselves) though I can't be certain of this as the models face is not in view. And then for me the focal point is where the light reflecting off the mirror is lighting up the model, before your eyes the capture the mirror, so this is the way we look at others.
Due to the nature of the image it is quite tightly cropped, and has a shallow depth of field, to make sure that we are looking at the main focal point, which is the model and the mirror.
I don't think that any shapes or patterns are particularly used, though due to the use of the lighting and the mirror, the tonal range is quite varied for a black and white image, from the deep black of the telephone and the background around the models body, to the fairly bright white in the mirror and all the varying greys in between.

This image is different from the images from Helmut Newton that I have looked at, it is not only in colour but it is a bright Red colour, the dress which immediately becomes the Focal point, as it stands out from the darker (yet still colourful) background.
I would say the image uses curves, from Claudia Schiffer's body with her breasts being squashed and slightly on show, down to her smaller waist and then curving back out to her hips, and then the curve created by her dress from having one leg in front of the other, and even the street in the background has a curve to it.
Also un-like his older and black and white images, this one is not really that controversial, or revealing.
The tonal range with it being colour is very wide, there is obviously reds, then blacks, whites, yellows, and maybe even very light blues around the street lights, and on the road next to the models hips.
The depth of field is very shallow, to the point of the building just behind where the model is leaning, has become slightly blurred out of focus.
The crop and framing is middle of the range, so that you can see where the model is,(nt ajshe is leaning on something, it almost loo S;/#lcgm been cropped in a 2/3's way, but I think it is more that the model cuts through the image on a diagonal, it's give the impression of 2/3's.

In summary I would say Helmut Newtons images generally are black and white, controversial, feature women a lot more than men, use the female form, and imagery of sex/sexiness and sex sells.