Helmut Newton

I am with Astorg and so, rather than lunch, Stéphane and I sneak across the 8e to the Grand Palais to see the Helmut Newton exhibition on my idea. Pictured, my favourite photo and, funnily enough, the lady fully clothed. Otherwise his photographs are pervy. Beautiful, too, of course. Perhaps his most famous portraits are 23 full scale nudes shot in the 1970s and 1980s - the women defiant, toned (bushes trimmed) and stare directly at the viewer daring us .. to do what ? Look at their vaginas in front of all these people? Newton would have been delighted.

Having never seen an image of Newton , I considered him to be, well, like his subjects, so it was a surprise to see his belly hanging over his Bermuda shorts, thick glasses, unusual hat.  He looks like a dirty old man and he certainly had fun with his models, which included Cindy Crawford, Natassia Kinski and Kristine DeBell, who he shot for PLayboy. Many of his photographs have a sado-masochistic theme and they are all sexually charged. Even his Polaroids, which he took in abundance.  Less well known are his portraits of Margaret Thatcher, Jean Marie Le Pen and Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, Anthony Hopkins . ..Mick Jaeger.  All on display.

Newton gets a nod in The Eyes of Laura Mars, which sees a photographer taking erotic photographs of women (who have their eyeballs gouged out).