We enter the Museum of Photography right behind Zoo Station. With our hands clasped behind our backs, we gaze at black-and-white images. They brim with unabashed emotion: defiant faces with eager eyes and desire on their lips.
Its creator seemed poised for a meteoric rise at a young age. At age 12, he bought himself a camera; at 16, he began an apprenticeship with fashion photographer Yva in Charlottenburg. There, Helmut Newton (then still known as Helmut Neustädter) learned the craft and was fascinated by fashion, staging, and glamour. But then the Nazi regime ruined everything.
28 October 2026 11:00 + more dates
Museum of Photography / Helmut Newton Foundation
The Life of Photography Icon Helmut Newton
After the November pogroms of 1938, it was no longer an option for Helmut, who was Jewish, to stay. In early December, the 18-year-old fled Germany and traveled via Trieste to Singapore. His parents later escaped to South America; his mentor, Yva, was deported and murdered in 1942.
Newton’s path led him to Australia in 1940. There, he was initially interned and later served as a truck driver in the army. Neustädter became Newton. In 1948, he married actress June Browne, who later worked as a photographer herself under the name Alice Springs, and opened his first studio in Melbourne.
From Refugee to “Vogue” Photographer
Starting in 1956, he photographed for the British edition of “Vogue,” and from 1961 onward, he worked from Paris for the French edition. His images were cool, glamorous, provocative, and often erotically charged. He portrayed women as self-assured, powerful figures who enjoyed breaking with convention. This earned him both admiration and criticism, and he became one of the defining stylists of fashion photography.
He had a complex relationship with Berlin throughout his life. Late in life, he reconnected with the city that had driven him away. In 2003, shortly before his death, the Helmut Newton Foundation was established. Newton bequeathed large portions of his body of work to it.
On January 23, 2004, he died in a car accident in Los Angeles. In June 2004, the foundation opened its exhibition spaces at the Museum of Photography. Since then, it has hosted rotating exhibitions there featuring works by Helmut Newton and June Newton (alias Alice Springs), who died in 2021 at the age of 97.
By the way: On Saturday, October 31, 2026, Helmut Newton would have celebrated his 106th birthday. A great day for…
… a visit to the Museum of Photography
Museum of Photography / Helmut Newton Foundation: Admission
28 October 2026 11:00 + more dates
Museum of Photography / Helmut Newton Foundation
The building is the former Landwehr Casino, a neoclassical structure on Jebensstraße. The foundation shares the space with the Art Library. Newton returned to the district where he had once learned photography.
If you’d like to see for yourself: The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., until 8 p.m. on Thursdays, and closed on Mondays.
