Helmut Newton. Legacy

The exhibition Legacy at the Ara Pacis, curated by Matthias Harder, director of the Helmut Newton Foundation, offers around 230 revised photographs, documents and videos which trace the entire career of Helmut Newton, one of the most loved and discussed photographers of all time.

The exhibition itinerary combines the most representative images with unpublished shots, presented for the first time in Italy, thus highlighting above all the most unconventional fashion services. Visitors can thus immerse themselves in the creative process of this great photographic artist, thanks to his polaroids and contact sheets, reconstructing the context from which his inspiration was born with his statements, special publications and archival materials.

The exhibition is divided into chronological chapters, illustrating all the phases and evolutions of Newton's life and career, from the beginning to the last years of production. The different sections highlight the collaborations with Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld from the 1960s, the innovative “Naked and Dressed” series from 1981, and the great commissions from the 1990s, which include fashion houses and designers such as Chanel, Thierry Mugler, YSL and Wolford. All aspects from which the uniqueness of Newton's work emerges, so much so that some of his most famous images have become part of our collective visual memory.

Photo: Helmut Newton, Rue Aubriot. Yves Saint Laurent, French Vogue. Paris, 1975