Shutter Bug...

I feel that it is time to take a moment and pay homage to a very important and prolific individual, Helmut Newton. Helmut Newton's work has forced us, the audience, to break free from our conventions of beauty and art. He has elevated the mere idea of snapping a models photograph to capturing a perfect moment in a characters life. A character who wears the clothes that illuminate her identity, her circumstance. These are the images we remember, the images that give life to the inanimate creations of the designer. Light, flesh, emotion, these are what we as the audience yearn for, what makes us believe that that frozen slice of life is attainable to perhaps us. These photographs are what makes buying a fashion magazine thrilling. The voyeurism that we are publicly allowed to savor as we turn glossy page after glossy page. Helmut Newton made this interesting, he made it taboo. Born on October 31st 1920, he was interested in photography from a very young age. In 1961 he moved to Paris and began working primarily as a fashion photographer for French Vogue. During his time at Vogue he became notable for his highly erotic and stylised scenes. Throughout the 1980's, Helumt Newton gained fame and notoriety with his "Big Nudes". He died in 2004 after he crashed his car into the side of Chateau Marmont on Sunset BLVD. His work, however, remains important and influential to all.

Photographs courtesy of lazy Monday & Vogue