Newton, born in Germany, is a photographer known for his evocative imagery of overtly sexual nude female figures. Always controversial, he was nicknamed “the King of Kink” typically placing his subjects in heavily stylized scenes of urban decadence, often with fetishistic subtexts, the pinnacle of which was the 1980 Big Nude series. Other series that feature feminine exploration include White Women and World Without Men.

Subjects included Elizabeth Taylor, Margaret Thatcher, Karl Lagerfield, Catherine Deneuve and Charlotte Rampling. He once said of the woman he photographed, “they gotta be built like a truck driver to please me.”

His work has been exhibited in several prominent galleries and museums including Gagosian Gallery, Galerie de Pury & Luxembourg, Mary Boone Gallery, Kunsthalle Munich, Museum of Modern Art Shiga, and many others.
He died in 2004 in West Hollywood, California. Today, the Helmut Newton Foundation resides in Berlin, Germany and handles much of the late artist’s collection.