“I got good at fifty”. Newton’s claim to fame came from the inside out. The combination of talent, a fascination for new trends and not afraid of being controversial was simply a projection of who Newton was away from the camera; a man with a strong opinion and a determination to succeed. From his studio in rue Aubriot in Paris, he developed a daring style in the sixties, finding it a rewarding challenge to show the world that he was different. Highly erotic photographs, which often bordered on the sadomasochistic, were a first for many of his commercial clients - and the artist’s radical ideas quickly translated into ringing cash registers. The bold images revealed themselves as decadence and cruelty woven into complex stories of independence, sex and power. At the age of fifty Newton was just getting started, excelling among fashion photographers where few found themselves in his league.

The pathway to recognition started decades earlier in Berlin. Born in 1920, his teenage years was influenced by the increasing Jewish oppression in the late thirties in Germany, and not long after his 18th birthday - the day when he could legally obtain a passport - he quickly fled the country. From Italy, he travelled to Singapore before reaching Australia, where he served in the Australian army during the war. Although worlds apart from the country he grew up, he was never far from the beloved camera that his father bought him when he was 12 years old []. The extreme circumstances of his young adult life would undoubtedly have an impact on his later photographic work evolving as charged and boundary-breaking.

After a short fling with British and French Vogue in the mid-fifties, and back and forth between Australia and Europe, Newton settled in Paris in ’61 working full-time for French Vogue. In the fifteen years that followed, he worked passionately, trying to outshine himself in each monthly issue, irrespective if the projects were destined for editorials within the Vogue family, or other magazines. Newton’s incredible talent and understanding of the zeitgeist, was the foundation of his success. He did not objectify women for his own pleasure, but instead gave them strength, showing them in their true magnificence and beauty in each work; sensual, tall, statuesque figures with unique personalities. These women were rule-makers instead of rule-obeying. Real women, unapologetic of their beauty and uninterested in the opinions of men.

During his life Newton was not afraid to embrace the inevitable change, rather, he experimented with it - and at eighty years old he remained a true innovator. In the late nineties a wave of new technology was rolling over the world on the back of the internet; at the time often referred to as cyberspace. Prepared to take on the new world order, the artist created seven images which were meant to be promoted and sold exclusively online. The series was titled Cyberwoman.

Shot in everyday locations around Los Angeles, the Cyberwoman celebrated and shaped new ideas of female identity, documenting and challenging societal taboos. In Cyberwoman 3, Newton’s model, naked from the waist down sitting with her legs spread in a typically masculine pose, points to commercialising all our desires. Erotic pleasures or a piece of cake? Now available online 24-7, or simply by dialling “1-800” as seen on the TV behind the female. As with many of his images at the turn of the century, the artist aimed to capture a changing attitude towards sex, roles and gender.

Confronting the traditionalism of the woman-in-the-kitchen, the model in Cyberwoman 1 is seen in a somewhat disturbing pose, leaning against a wall next to a mid-century Philco fridge and holding a knife towards herself. A similar domestic setting is portrayed in Cyberwoman 6, where the banality of the home and a woman’s role is set against the brazen nudity of the female figure. The standing light accentuates the form of the model while her relation to the potential danger of heat from the radiator or a sighting through the large curtainless window adds an element of tension into the work. These women were not Cyberbots or Desperate Housewives, content to carry out day to day chores in confinement. They were liberated in the series.

Helmut Newton died on a warm and sunny January-day in 2004. Proceeding down the driveway from his winter residence at the Chateau Marmont hotel in Los Angeles, he suffered a heart attack and crashed his Cadillac into a wall at high speed. His close and long-time friend, the American photographer Ralph Gibson, said at the time that Newton had cheated the devil. This was a man who had no desire to pass away in a mundane fashion, but a remarkable man who knew to leave when at the top of his game.

Today, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, Newton is still considered the reigning master of erotic photography, the ‘king of kink’. He left behind an incredible legacy, a famed oeuvre ranging from dominant nude women, who radiate a sense of empowerment, to black-and-white portraiture of figures that include actors, musical icons and fellow artists. The quality to his work will endure for decades to come and has left its mark on the history of photography.

Newton’s early focus as a commercial photographer meant that at the time of his first exhibition in Paris at the Nikon Gallery in ‘75, the works on display were not only spectacular for a debutant, but also projected a life experience rarely seen today from artists making their first appearance in the art world. Between 1990 and 1996 he was awarded the highest public orders in France, Germany and Monte Carlo, where he became resident in 1981. The large retrospective exhibition in 2000, in celebration of his 80th birthday, toured several cities, including Berlin, London, New York, Moscow, Tokyo and others, and became an inspiration for the Helmut Newton Foundation; a permanent space in Berlin, exhibiting not only Newton’s work but also hosting regular exhibitions of works by other artists.

No other photographer in the history of Eyestorm has impressed the audience as Helmut Newton has. The SUMO book, a monograph published by Taschen in 1999 and co-promoted by Eyestorm, was the largest book of the twentieth century, weighing 35kg and sold in ten thousand copies. In the following year, the series of seven ‘Cyberwoman’ was released; a prestigious photographic edition exclusively available at Eyestorm. The collaboration with Newton was at first decided to be of 100 each, however the pre-interest was so extraordinary that the final edition size was increased five-fold. Presented in a customised and stylish black hard-edged box, the 500 sets sold out very quickly. Inside each box, seven gelatin silver prints, stamped and numbered on verso.

You can find more information about the photographic series, and see each Cyberwoman in further details, on Helmut Newton’s artist page here.