Helmut Newton was born and grew up in Berlin, which he fled in 1938 to escape persecution as a Jew. After a brief spell in Singapore he came to Australia, where he was interned before serving with the Australian Army. In the postwar years he operated a studio in Flinders Lane, engaged mostly on fashion work. He became an Australian citizen, but left Australia in 1961 to settle in Paris, where he gained wide exposure, particularly through French Vogue. Over the late 1970s and 1980s his mannered, sharp-focused nudes and fetishistic and sado-masochistic images both reflected and influenced the style of the times. In later life Newton lived in Monte Carlo and Los Angeles, where he died while driving near his customary residence, the Chateau Marmont hotel. He is buried in Berlin, home to a large collection of his photographs.
