Photographer Helmut Newton’s lens grappled with the guts and glamour of a moment simultaneously, and his years spent on the French Riviera during the eighties and nineties saw him capture its charm with a poise somehow both candid and editorial. While Newton and his wife, June, owned a holiday home in the south of France from as early as 1964, it wasn’t until the pair abandoned the chic streets of Paris for Monaco’s Monte Carlo in 1981 that the enchanting beaches and flourishing social scene of the southern coastline came to redefine the ever-provocative fashion photographer’s work.
Image credit: Helmut Newton, Fat Hand with Dollars, Monte Carlo, 1984, copyright Helmut Newton Foundation
Captivated by the contrast between Monte Carlo’s plentiful concrete construction sites and the vivid beauty of the Riviera’s high-profile guests, Newton began producing striking new editorial concepts for magazines and designers, including the enigmatic black-and-white series The Woman on Level 4. His work was, as always, bold and experimental, and his unique perspectives on beauty and strength saw him shooting in Cannes and Nice, and later in other parts of the Riviera, including Cap d’Antibes, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Menton, and even across the Italian border to Bordighera. During this period, in which he focused on fashion, portrait, and nude formats, Newton created some of his most arresting works.
Image credits: Helmut Newton, Monica Bellucci, Monte Carlo 2001, copyright Helmut Newton Foundation (L), Helmut Newton, American Vogue, Monaco 2003, copyright Helmut Newton Foundation (R)
Image credit: Helmut Newton, Bernice Coppieters, Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, 1992, copyright Helmut Newton Foundation
In 1985, Newton was asked to create images for the programme brochure of the Monte Carlo ballet — Les Ballets de Monte Carlo. With no prior experience shooting for such publications, Newton did exactly what he knew best: distilled the raw power and theatrics of the production into photographs that would brand the image of the dancers and their stage into the memory of whoever gazed upon them. The work was unconventional and likely received with some tutting and shaking of heads, but he was asked back to do it for 12 years in a row — so somebody liked it. Newton’s 1992 photograph of principal ballet master Bernice Coppieters is one of the most memorable from this era, and sees the dancer posing nude but for her pointe shoes, holding herself in an almost inhuman form against the unpolished backstage area.
Image credit: Helmut Newton, Grand Hôtel du Cap, Marie Claire, Antibes 1972 © Helmut Newton Foundation
Until 15 February 2026, photography lovers can experience a sprawling offering of works from Newton’s sun-drenched, coastal era in Newton, Riviera at Berlin’s Helmut Newton Foundation — co-curated by the foundation’s director Matthias Harder and Guillaume de Sardes. Telling a story that takes the audience right up to the days before Newton’s passing, the exhibition features iconic works and faces, from Grace Jones and Monica Bellucci to Jude Law and Naomi Campbell. Running parallel to Newton, Riviera, the exhibition Dialogues. Collection FOTOGRAFIS x Helmut Newton presents a new format for the foundation, where Newton’s photographs are displayed in dialogue with paired works by other photographers, curated in partnership with the Collection FOTOGRAFIS of the Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien.
See Newton, Riviera and Dialogues. Collection FOTOGRAFIS x Helmut Newton at the Helmut Newton Foundation until 15 February 2026.
