Helmut Newton’s impact on the history and trajectory of fashion photography merits the utmost recognition. More than 50 years after his first photographs appeared in publication, Newton’s groundbreaking work continues to embody the cultural revolution that characterized the latter half of the 20th-century.Newton’s career began in the 1950s in Australia, where he briefly served as a contributing photographer for British Vogue. However, it was as a staff photographer for French Vogue in the late 1960s where he began making a name for himself in the industry. By then, his contemporaries Irving Penn and Richard Avedon had already established themselves as the photographic visionaries behind American Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, respectively. Between Penn’s minimalist approach and Avedon’s affinity for lively outdoors shoots, the genre of fashion photography was transforming from a once-staid and overly-styled genre to one that emanated contagious livelihood, effortless movement, and impossible elegance. With Newton’s commanding entrance into the field marked by his trailblazing style, at once shocking and seductive, fashion photography was propelled even further into an exciting and dynamic future.While other fashion photographers of that time evolved from a tradition of fashion photography that positioned the model as a vessel for highlighting the clothing, Newton turned the genre on its heels— boldly thrusting his models to the forefront of viewers’ consciousness as empowered, fearless, domineering and entirely unapologetic agents. Their clothing became secondary, if not inconsequential, in Newton’s intent to depict a new contemporary culture that emphasized the power of the sexually-liberated and independent woman. Some of the strongest examples of his approach may be found in Helmut Newton’s Photographien (lot 87) where models in various stages of undress pose in playful yet sexually charged scenarios. Indeed, Newton’s highly meticulous and staged photographs have long been noted for their edge and the overt sexual tones that consistently pushed boundaries. But his work also offers a peek behind the curtain that conceals the darkest scenes of our subconscious; a glimpse at the performance of fantasy and social taboos. Newton has referenced the French street photographer Brassaï as an early influence, and the tawdry details seen throughout Newton’s work resonate with Brassaï’s images of the prostitutes frequenting gentlemen’s clubs who characterized the Parisian gritty nightlife in the 1920s. But whereas Brassaï’s subjects were often oblivious to his presence in their underground world, Newton’s subjects exude a confident awareness of the photographer’s watchful eye. In the current lot, Parlour Games, Munich, 1992, the model’s direct and assertive gaze into the camera implicates the photographer, inviting him and by extension the viewer into the unfolding seductive narrative. Viewers are subsequently turned into an actively observant audience whose participation is tightly controlled by the model’s actions. While Newton was often criticized for presenting his female subjects in such heightened sexual scenes, his brilliance, in fact, lay in his ability to transfer his power as the male voyeur to his female subjects, putting them in the position of triumphant dominance. Indeed, not only were they aware of the parlor games, they appeared to be joyously leading them.