This image is a great example of not only Newton’s fascination with hotel rooms, but also his interest in creating a sense of “reportage” in his work,’ remarks Quinn. ‘Was Charlotte Rampling asked to undress or is he capturing a private moment?’ The Hollywood film The Eyes of Laura Mars starring Faye Dunaway was inspired by Helmut’s photos. Ironically, the photos he contributed to the film were rejected as the director of the film wanted more blood and corpses, which were of no interest to Helmut.

A big thought also goes to the hairdresser Bruno (Jacques Dessange) and makeup artist José Luis (YSL), who both disappeared a few years later, dying of AIDS. Both worked very often with Helmut Newton, including this famous photo. Image photographed by Helmut Newton, courtesy Sylvia GobbelIt was his body of work during this period which established his reputation as a world-renowned fashion photographer. Under the Influence In the 1970s, his work for Vogue, Vanity Fair and Elle revolutionized fashion photography and paved the way for contemporary photography to become more creative and risky. The exhibition presents over 200 images by Helmut Newton, one of the most important and famous photographers of the twentieth century. It collects together images from "White Women", "Sleepless Nights", and "Big Nudes", the first three books by Newton published at the end of the 1970s, books that are today considered legendary and which were the only ones to be edited by Newton himself. When selecting the photos, Newton interspersed a sequence, one next to another, of shots that had been commissioned with those he had made for himself, thus constructing a narrative which was a search for style, for the discovery of elegant gestures underpinned by the existence of a further reality, of something that it is up to the viewer to interpret.

Two years later he was forced to flee Germany as the Nazis carried out the " Kristallnacht" pogrom. With two cameras in his luggage, he fled to Australia via Singapore. He would never see his parents again.

In this 25-minute video from 1999, Helmut sits down with US talk show host Charlie Rose and discusses his photography work and the upcoming release of his book, Sumo.