He was »A Gun for Hire«

He »shot« for money: Helmut Newton teased with the self-description »A Gun for Hire«, to which his commissioned work for high-profile brands led him. As early as the 1960s, he photographed for fashion brands such as Nino-Moden from Nordhorn. But it was his luxury fashion images from the 1980s and 1990s, which he arranged mainly in and around Monaco, that catapulted him to the top. Stylistically, Newton did not distinguish them from magazine editorials – his artful advertising photos and stretches remained in the memory because they were as varied as the designs themselves. The Helmut Newton Foundation at the Museum of Photography in Berlin is now honoring Newton's commercial photography with a special exhibition. Helmut Newton. Brands opens on December 3.

It is the first survey exhibition to focus solely on Newton's advertising photography. The museum shows more than 200 photographs, including previously unknown motifs from collaborations with brands such as Swarovski, Saint Laurent and Wolford. It features examples from his longtime »collaborations with Anna Molinari and her label Blumarine, including models Monica Bellucci, Carla Bruni.« The museum stages Newton's purposeful visualization of individual products: Alternately, he exposed or marginalized them – from women's tights to red wine to cars. The special exhibition runs until May 14, 2023.