In a time when nudity and strategically placed food are just as important to fashion photography as clothing is, it’s hard to imagine the last time a photograph truly shocked you.
But 30 years before Terry Richardson joined Twitter, there was Helmut Newton.
The pioneer of ‘porno chic’ has left a stash of 20 works hiding amongst the AGNSW Arthur Boyds and Claude Monets, and now they’re being brought out of the archives and onto the gallery walls.
Alongside them will be more than 30 works by Bettina Rheims, whose Modern Love teenage androgynes were snapped long before Andrej Pejic walked for Jean Paul Gaultier in a wedding dress.
You’ve probably seen a few of the snaps before, either in old issues of Vogue or screenshot and posted to Instagram — Bettina’s street-scouted models against a sombre grey background and Helmut’s ‘70s and ‘80s bondagesque heroines. But you can expect their representations of masculine/feminine/Amazonian/androgyne to be even more impressive up close.
Unleash your inner voyeur.
The Fashion of Helmut Newton and Bettina Rheims
9 Feb – 19 May 2013
AGNSW, Art Gallery Road, The Domain, Sydney, NSW 2000
Open daily 10am – 5pm
1800 679 278
Free admission