Last night a retrospective on the work of photographer Helmut Newton opened at the Swedish Museum of Photography (Fotografiska). The exhibition will run until September 29^th and showcases many famous fashion works as well as Newton’s portraits of for example Andy Warhol, Yves Saint Laurent, Charlotte Rampling, David Lee Roth to name a few. Through out the exhibition several quotes of Newton are placed on the walls, which gives a great additional insight on his approach to photography in relation to art and fashion. One of my favorites below;

“I love vulgarity. I am very attracted by bad taste – it is a lot more exciting than that supposed good taste, which is nothing more than a standardized way of looking at things… I don’t practise photography for myself, not for art. If the art world rejects me, all I can say is, “Good luck to the world of art.” If I look for a real point of view, I’m not going to start by looking at what art will accept so I can conform to that. That’s why in Sleepless Nights all that sadomasochism still seems interesting to me today. I always carry chains and padlocks in my car trunk, not for me but for my photos–and by the way, I never make the knots real tight.”

“Helmut Newton by Helmut Newton” in Helmut Newton (New York: Pantheon Press, 1987)