iMuseum für FotografieCharlottenburg
Helmut Newton. White Women / Sleepless Nights / Big Nudes
Over 200 photographs from Newton's three landmark books of 1976–81, with original maquettes and prints, marking 50 years of White Women.
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Preview: written before the show opened
Newton took the idea for his Big Nudes from the oversized wanted posters of Red Army Faction members put up by the German police: full-body studio nudes, printed life-size. The first five, from 1980, have stood in the foundation's upper lobby since 2004. This show puts the books around them.
More than 200 photographs come from three books Newton planned himself: White Women (1976), Sleepless Nights (1978) and Big Nudes (1981), never shown together in his lifetime. Sleepless Nights adds three small series: models in orthopaedic braces, made just after Ballard's Crash; the Hermès saddles, the most controversial; and shop mannequins wired to the Pont Alexandre III at night. You may need a second look to tell a mannequin from a model. Vitrines hold the original maquettes, work prints and period reviews.
Director Matthias Harder says the foundation is opening the pictures up to discussion, with an events programme alongside. It opens 3 December, right after the museum's refurbishment closure. Entry is €12 (€6 concessions).
Editor's pick
The life-size Big Nudes, modelled on RAF wanted posters, anchor all three of Newton's 1970s and 80s books on the walls together, which never happened in his lifetime. The maquettes and work prints show how the books were made.
Look for
Yves Saint Laurent, Rue Aubriot, Paris 1975
White Women carries a variant of this night street shot for French Vogue; minutes later Newton reshot it with a nude model, his first pairing of fashion and nudity.
Store Dummies, Paris 1976
Shop mannequins made up by stylists so convincingly that it can take a second or third look to tell them from the live models.
Saddle II, Hermès, Vogue Homme, Paris 1976
A model with a Hermès leather saddle, from the Sleepless Nights series that drew the most controversy.
The Big Nudes in the upper lobby
Five life-size full-body nudes from 1980, numbered in Roman numerals, beside Sie kommen, a life-size diptych from Naked and Dressed.
The book maquettes
Newton's original maquettes for the three books, with their alternative cover designs, shown in vitrines beside small work prints and magazine reviews from the time.
Good for
- Nerding Out
- Out-Of-Town Guests
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Image credits
6
- Helmut Newton. White Women / Sleepless Nights / Big Nudes© Helmut Newton Foundation
- Stelios Kallinikou: Cliffs Among Dreams© Stelios Kallinikou
- Susanne Kriemann: In the Sun's Fever Flutter Butterflies in the Stomach© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2026
- Carrie Mae Weems: The Heart of the Matter© Carrie Mae Weems. Courtesy the artist and Gladstone, New York, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, and Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin
- Museum für FotografieA.Savin / Wikimedia Commons
- C/O BerlinRaimond Spekking / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0