Amazon.com
This arresting collection of photography features work by both Helmut Newton and his wife, actress Alice Springs. Newton's coolly elegant and sexy studies are splendidly counterbalanced by Springs's warmer and more vulnerable pieces. The book is divided into three sections: two "Us" sections, in which Newton and Springs alternately photograph themselves and each other, and a final "Them" chapter that features subjects photographed differently by each photographer. The cast is a glitzy mix of Riviera-style celebrities. Catherine Deneuve is especially sultry shot by Newton, dressed in a black negligee with a cigarette dangling from her lips just below her bedroom eyes, while in the facing portrait taken by Springs, her torso is concealed within a black turtleneck and she stares confidently and directly at the camera. Karl Lagerfeld is here before he went gray, and Gianni Versace is posed not quite languidly naked on a leopard-skin sofa. The self-portraits are revealing and occasionally disturbing. Springs is often in various states of undress in front of mirrors. Newton is most often with naked models, occasionally cross-dressed, and when he is naked is oddly wired up to various types of medical equipment such as EKG machines. Aside from a very brief introduction by Newton, there is no accompanying text in the book--not even captions--but this is a book of images, not words, and nearly all these fine photographs are worth at least a thousand of them. --Nick Wroe, Amazon.co.uk
From Library Journal
Can two artists build their lives and careers together while maintaining separate artistic visions? Newton and Springs (born June Browne and later known as June Brunelle) here give us a resounding affirmative. Their singular monograph is a visual testament to the longevity of their partnership and the constancy of their individual artistic visions. Newton, internationally known for his idiosyncratic fashion and portrait photography, and Springs, an actress, painter, and late-blooming photographer, were married in 1947. The book contains their self-portraits, portraits of each other, and radically distinct portraits of celebrity figures. Of the approximately 180 photographs collected here, most are in black and white, and some contain frank nudity. Taken together, they comprise an intimate and highly personal chronology of an intimate partnership. A valuable addition to photography sections in large public and academic libraries.ADebora Miller, Minneapolis
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
