Upstairs at Maxim’s, Paris, (1978) by Helmut Newton

Helmut Newton

(Germany, Australia, France 1920–2004)

Upstairs at Maxim’s, Paris

Location

Not on display

Further information

‘Upstairs at Maxim’s’ indulges in another of Newton’s obsessions – the mannequin, which he first used in 1968. They allowed him to stage daring tableaux for French ‘Vogue’, in which, as he said: ‘Using live models would have been too risky.’1 While ‘Upstairs at Maxim’s’ appears at first glance to be a simple shot showing off women’s clothes, the opulent interior with the vacant mirror and the equally vacant mannequin take on a pathos and eroticism due to the simple action of the man kissing the inanimate hand – which has been detached.

Klaus Honnef has commented that ‘the totally artificial atmosphere of traditional fashion photography is missing in Newton’s work, and we can begin to sense a latent imaginative realm of fantasies, dreams and nightmares’.2 Hence Newton’s ability to shock his audience as he made quite explicit the relationship between body, clothes, environment and voyeurism.

1. Newton H 2003, ‘Autobiography’, Gerald Duckworth & Co, London p 145
2. Honnef K 1988, ‘Contemporary photographers’, 2nd ed, ed C Naylor, St James Press, Chicago/London p 758

Year

1978

Media

Photograph

Medium

gelatin silver photograph

Dimensions

36.3 x 24.0cm image; 40.5 x 30.3cm sheet

Signature & date

Signed l.l. verso, pencil "Helmut Newton". Not dated.

Credit

Gift of Edron Pty Ltd - 1995 through the auspices of Alistair McAlpine

Accession number

335.1996