Helmut Newton was born in Berlin on October 31st 1920.
In the same city lived Karl Blossfeldt. Blossfeldt was a relatively unknown professor of 'Modeling from Plants' at the State School for free and applied arts (Vereinigten Staatsschulen für Freie und Angewandte Kunst). That's until 1928, when he published his first book, 'Urformen der Kunst', and became famous overnight. He died in 1932. That year Helmut Newton bought his first camera.
It is unlikely that the two ever met. Yet, their art has so much in common.
‘New[blossfeld]ton’ (2020 – ongoing) is a collage work based on the fashion photographs of Helmut Newton (1920 – 2004) and on the botanical photographs of Karl Blossfeldt (1865 – 1932).
I was puzzled when I looked at their artworks, and all I could see was 'form'. By juxtaposing the works of the two photographers, I want to highlight the plastic formality of the botanical world, which is much closer to the human aesthetics than we might recognize at a first observation.
While the human world of Helmut Newton is glossy, sexy and provocative, the quiet and static photographs of Karl Blossfeldt take us to a peaceful universe of still meditation and introspection. New[blossfeld]ton shows that these two worlds can and should reinforce each other. It shows a possible coexistence of human superegos and nature. Newton’s models become intricate icons and protectors of an ephemeral, natural world, in which nude bodies are wrapped in dresses made of Asclepias Syriaca and Isabella Rossellini succumbs to the charms of a grey thistle flower.
New[blossfeld]ton is about beauty and form, about the extraordinary in the ordinary, about seeing reality with different eyes and about remembering that we are nature.
More info: Instagram
New[blossfeld]ton #1, 'A dress for Una', 2020 (Helmut Newton, Big Nude, Una, Nice, 1993 + Karl Blossfeldt, Asclepias syriaca - cornuti, 1928)
New[blossfeld]ton #3, 'The Kiss', 2020 (Helmut Newton, David Lynch and Isabella Rossellini, Los Angeles, 1988 + Karl Blossfeldt, Grey Thistle, 1928)
New[blossfeld]ton #7, 'The awakening', 2020 (Helmut Newton, Lisa Lyon in Paris IV, 1980 + Karl Blossfeldt, Aconitum, 1928)
New[blossfeld]ton #6, 'Voyeuse', 2020 (Helmut Newton, Heather Looking Through A Keyhole, 1994 + Karl Blossfeldt, 1928)
New[blossfeld]ton #13, 'Bulbous Chloe'', 2020 (Helmut Newton, Chloe', Paris, 1972 + Karl Blossfeldt, Thorned Bulbous Plant, 1928)
New[blossfeld]ton #6, 'Torn life enojyer', 2020 (Helmut Newton, Organza de Givenchy, as published in Vogue Paris N772, 1996 + Karl Blossfeldt, Silphium lacinatum, 1928)
New[blossfeld]ton #8, 'Hips', 2020 (Helmut Newton, Big Nude III, Paris, 1980 + Karl Blossfeldt, Birthwort, 1928)
