Helmut Newton

giving them the razzle dazzle they want.

The movie poster and the titles and everything are designed around this book, this coffee table book of hers, which is kind of also, you know, her work in general is based off the work of Helmut Newton, who had this very stark black and white style, lots of nudity, very provocative, very strong photographs used in magazines like Vogue.

Helmut, a German photographer via Australia, born in 1920 in Germany, Unfortunately, it was a child during the Reich.

His family had to leave for obvious reasons.

And you would recognize his photos.

You've seen his photos.

Google Helmut Newton.

You recognize them.

He's gone swimming with sharks in the Galapagos and even staged a musical comedy with the townspeople of Mansfield, Texas.

Stuart also trained under legendary photographer Helmut Newton.

He studied film at USC and he spent decades mastering one specific thing, giving life the best light, literally and figuratively, in a way that resonates with whoever's watching.

So today we're going to zoom out and talk big picture, the evolution of media, how the way we reach people has fundamentally changed, and where Stuart thinks it's all headed next.

Oh, well, I won't tell if you won't.

Stuart, I mean, there's so much we could talk about.

We mentioned Helmut Newton in the intro, right? You studied under him, obviously a very influential photographer in history.

What's one of the biggest lessons from that experience that still shows up in your work today?

Jerry says, YSL was my first fashion show.

I wore his tuxedo and Helmut Newton was my first photographer in 1973.

I was really very lucky.

I had an amazing career.

You know, you, you morph into, and that's part of the artistry and the creativity.

I took it as is when I was on set getting direction from Steven Meisel, Helmut Newton, Irving Penn, it was my moment to dig a little bit deeper and to tap into something greater than, you know, not that walking on a runway or posing isn't interesting, but I loved the research.

Um, they would often bring books.

You know, Steven would have piles of books, and they would, of course, have a mood board, and there's a, a level of escapism in that, too.

Yes.

And you've worked with some of the most incredible photographers in the industry.

You mentioned Steven Meisel, Helmut Newton, Peter Lindbergh, Patrick Demarchelier among them.

Do you remember a shoot during which the photographer just brought out the very best in you?

So, that's at least my perception of what, you know, I mean, photography has so many different genres and tenets and, you know, there's obviously the reportage, the journalistic world and so on and so forth.

If you even check history, I think, who was it? There was a really famous photographer, Helmut Newton, I think.

Helmut Newton actually did a stint, I believe, in the Singapore press as a journalist before he became Helmut Newton.

Wow.

So, yeah.

It wasn't a one-off.

Same woman, she's striking, honestly, like she walked out of a Helmut Newton print, my size.

I wanted to believe it meant nothing, but I couldn't.

I ache for comfort, for proof that it's all a misunderstanding.

And so she got that style from Yves Saint Laurent and these guys, you know, she worked with.

All the good photographers, Helmut Newton.

And so she had an incredible style.

So I think the combination of the fact that she was, you know, African American, spoke fluent French, wearing fashion gear from Yves Saint Laurent, and then of course with me [laughs] behind her, uh, it was quite an entourage.

She was-

She, she d- did a bunch of other stuff, too, but that was the one I remembered because I, it was kind of a, it was very beautiful suit he made.

But all the other stuff didn't really matter, and some, some photos we had together with, that we took with Helmut Newton and he had signed.

There were a few things that went, and Herb Ritts, some stuff went into the fireplace.

We were about to get in touch with him.

So we were in close because we thought after working with Gottfried Helmwein, Helmut Newton, Andy Warhol would have been perfect.

And just the whole thing was falling apart because of some merchandise kind of things.

And we didn't...