Helmut Newton. SUMO. Revised byJune Newton Hardcover – 25 Sep 2009

Amazon Review

Bringing an entirely new slant to the concept of the coffee-table book, SUMO is a suitably enormous homage to 79-year-old Helmut Newton, the master of subversive and erotic photography. "I wanted to build a monument to the most important photographer of the 20th century", commented Benedikt Taschen, the publisher behind SUMO--and that has certainly been achieved. Weighing 30 kg and measuring 50 x 70cm, and breaking any previous record in book publishing, SUMO contains 480 pages covering every aspect of Newton's outstanding career in photography. Each copy of SUMO is bound by hand and numbered and signed by the artist. In order to show this colossus off, designer Philippe Starck has created a unique device for displaying the book at home. This incredible volume contains the body of Newton's controversial yet iconographic work, documenting fashion, fetishism and, above all, an overriding obsession with voyeurism that can make the viewer feel complicit or uneasy by turns. Newton himself describes SUMO as "terrifying and outrageous. I don't even look at it as a book ... I look at it as an object." --Catherine Taylor --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Helmut Newton (1920-2004) was one of the most influential photographers of all time. Born in Berlin, he arrived in Australia in 1940 and married June Brunell (a.k.a. Alice Springs) eight years later. He first achieved international fame in the 1970's while working principally for French Vogue, and his celebrity and influence grew over the decades. Newton preferred to shoot in streets or interiors, rather than studios. Controversial scenarios, bold lighting, and striking compositions came to form his signature look. In 1990 he was awarded the Grand Prix National for photography; in 1992 the German government awarded him Das Grosse Verdienstkreuz for services to German culture, and he was appointed Officer des Arts, Lettres et Sciences by S.A.S. Princess Caroline of Monaco. In 1996, he was appointed Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by Philippe Douste-Blazy, the French Minister of Culture at the time. Working and living in close companionship with his wife until his death at 83, his images remain as distinctive, seductive and orginal as ever.