The Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin has opened a major new double exhibition titled "Newton, Riviera" and "Dialogues. Collection FOTOGRAFIS x Helmut Newton." The exhibition presents an extensive showcase of the renowned photographer's work from the French Riviera region where he spent his later years.
In summer 2022, Matthias Harder, director of the Helmut Newton Foundation, collaborated with Guillaume de Sardes to prepare the original "Newton, Riviera" exhibition for Villa Sauber, a historic venue in Monte Carlo. For the first time, this residence where Newton spent his final years and the surrounding region where many of his iconic images were created took center stage. A carefully curated selection from this Monte Carlo exhibition is now being presented in Berlin alongside "Dialogues. Collection FOTOGRAFIS x Helmut Newton."
This latest exhibition continues the foundation's focus on Newton's personal and professional environment, following acclaimed shows such as "Hollywood" (2022) and "Berlin, Berlin" (2024/25). At the turn of 1981/82, Helmut Newton and his wife June left Paris for Monte Carlo, marking not only a turning point in their private lives but also a radical change in Newton's photographic settings and perspective.
The move from Paris brought a dramatic shift in Newton's artistic vision. Gone was the natural elegance of Parisian chic as Newton turned his lens toward the glamorous high society life of the Riviera, often framed by the raw concrete walls of Monaco's numerous construction sites. Even the modest garage of their apartment building became the setting for bold and conceptually sharp fashion shoots for magazines and designers, as well as the enigmatic black-and-white series "The Woman on Level 4."
Newton's love affair with the French Riviera, however, ran much deeper than his Monte Carlo years. As early as 1964, he and June purchased a small stone house near Ramatuelle, not far from Saint-Tropez. This property served as both a summer retreat and a creative workspace, as evidenced by the black-and-white images taken for Vogue US and the vibrant color photographs created for the Pentax calendar.
The exhibition presents a comprehensive range of vintage prints, including unique vintage prints and collector's editions. During the 1980s and 1990s, Newton's distinctive fashion photography sessions took him throughout the Riviera region, from Cannes and Nice to other coastal cities including Cap d'Antibes, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Menton, and even across the Italian border to Bordighera. In these locations, he explored his three signature genres: fashion, portraiture, and nude photography, with the region's distinctive light playing a central role in his compositions.
Newton also captured peaceful nocturnal seascapes from his Monaco balcony, creating atmospheric landscape imagery. Similar atmospheric landscapes emerged during the mid-1990s in Berlin, culminating in his exhibition "Sex and Landscapes" at Galerie de Pury Luxembourg in Zurich in 2001. A version of this exhibition was also presented during the inauguration of the Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin in June 2004, shortly after Newton's death.
More than 20 years later, this new presentation of large-format original prints brings the story full circle. Photographs taken along the Riviera appear in virtually all of Newton's exhibitions and publications, from "White Women" in 1976 to "Yellow Press" in 2003. The coastline served as a backdrop multiple times, sometimes spectacularly, sometimes subtly. His final photo shoot, a fashion series for Vogue Italia, also took place on the Monaco coast.
A complementary book titled "Newton, Riviera" was published for the original Monte Carlo exhibition by Gallimard, with the international edition published by Prestel. Both editions are available at the museum bookstore and bookstores worldwide.
