Helmut Newton Foundation Jebensstr. 2 D-10623 Berlin Allemagne
After the great success of the exhibition "A gun for hire" at the Helmut Newton Foundation in 2005 with Newton's fashion photos from the last 20 years the current show "Helmut Newton: Fired" focuses on his editorial work for fashion magazines of the 1960s and 1970s like Elle, Queen, Nova or Marie Claire.
"Fired from French Vogue: In 1964 I was commissioned by Queen magazine to photograph the revolutionary collection by Courrèges. The fashion editor, Claire Rendlesham, decided on a journalistic scoop showing only my Courrèges photos and excluding all other fashion houses from her Paris report. When Queen landed on the desk of Françoise de Langlade (then associate editor-in-chief of French Vogue) she hit the roof. I was called into her office, we had a tremendous row, she accused me of treachery and disloyalty and wanted to know why I had not told her about this scoop. I pointed out to her that I had no exclusive contract with Vogue, and it was of course understood that I would never divulge any ideas developed by French Vogue to Queen or vice versa. So I was kicked out of the hallowed halls of Vogue only to return in 1969 when Francine Crescent was appointed editor-in-chief. During Francine's regime, I did what I considered my best fashion work. I was to be a regular contributor until 1983." — Helmut Newton, from: Pages from the Glossies, Zurich: Scalo, 1998
"The news of Helmut's banishment from French Vogue soon reached Claude Brouet, the editor-in-chief of Elle magazine, who offered him work on the magazine. Helmut continued working for English and German magazines. He was able to adapt his style to the policy of the many magazines he worked for." — June Newton, Monte Carlo 2008