Background

June Newton was born on June 3, 1923 in Melbourne, Australia as June Browne. Not much is known about her family and upbringing.

Career

In the mid-1940's, Browne was working as an actress in Melbourne under the professional name June Brunell, as there was another actress, named June Browne, in the local entertainment scene at the time. She also did some modeling work at Helmut Newton's studio. After their marriage, she continued to act and became quite successful both on stage and screen. While she was living in the United Kindom, she worked in some BBC productions. In 1957, after Helmut, already her husband, signed a year-long contract with "British Vogue," the couple relocated to London. However, Helmut didn't like it there, and they moved again. Helmut's photographs were featured in publications like "Jardin des Modes" and "Australian Vogue." By 1960, the couple had made Paris their home. In France, June's acting career ended because of the language barriers. It was also there, in France, that she began to paint.

June Newton's career as a photographer began by chance. Helmut was supposed to take photographs of a model for an ad for Gitanes cigarettes, when he started demonstrating various flu-related symptoms. Instead of canceling the photo shoot as he was not able to contact the model, he asked June to step in and taught her how to handle a camera. She subsequently began using the pseudonym Alice Springs, a pun on a hot, remote barren town of the same name in Australia, as a photographer. The name was picked by blinding pushing a pin into an Australian map.

By 1974, one of June's photographs had been featured in "Elle" magazine. Her photographs have since been featured in "Vogue," "Marie Claire," "Vanity Fair," "Interview" and "Stern." Although she was initially a fashion photographer like her husband, she later became a celebrated portraitist. She has taken memorable photographs of such public figures, as William S. Burroughs, Anthony Burgess, Catherine Deneuve, Graham Greene, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Mapplethorpe, Christopher Reeve, Diana Vreeland, Yves Saint Laurent, Brigitte Nielsen and Nicole Kidman. The year of 1978 saw the first solo exhibition of June's portraits in Amsterdam - the first of many to follow worldwide. In 1981, the Newtons left France and moved to Monaco.

Alongside her career as a photographer, June served as her husband's art director, working both as an editor and curator for his work. She was also the subject of several of his photographs.

Currently, June also holds the post of president of the Helmut Newton Foundation, which was established in June 2004.

Achievements

• June Newton is best known as an elusive, yet influential photographer. While she began her career in the fashion industry, publishing images in "Vogue," "Elle," "Interview" and "Vanity Fair" magazines, she now mostly works in portraiture. During her career, June has worked with numerous celebrities.
  
  Alongside her portraits, June Newton also documented the Los Angeles punk scene during the 1980's and directed the 1995 documentary Helmut by June, comprised of her own video footage, writing and narration. Together with her husband, June also published the photo book Us and Them, which juxtaposes their individual practices, while providing insight into their views of each other and their shared world in the fast lane of photography.
  
  In 1956, June received the Erik Kuttner Award, which is given for contribution to theatre in Melbourne. In 2012, June Newton was made an Officier of the Order of Arts and Letters.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Mrs. Newton

    (June Newton, renowned under her professional pseudonym Al...)

    2004
  • Us and Them

    (Us and Them is an ode to partnership and art. It gathers ...)

    1999

• photography

  • Grace Jones

    1987

  • Brigitte Nielsen

    1990

  • Nicole Kidman

    1988

  • Anna Piaggi

    1996

  • Eva Whalen

    1978

  • Mica Ertegun

    1999

  • Hanna Schygulla

    1981

  • Bella Freud

    1995

  • Margot Werts

    1985

  • Judith Boortolomi

    1988

  • Jenny Kapitän

    1983

  • SAS Caroline de Monaco and Andréa

    1985

  • Vivienne Westwood

    1995

  • Betty Jackson

    1995

  • Marianne Williamson and Baby

    1991

  • Anna Mahler

    1986

  • Sonia Rykiel

    1980

  • Mirène Le Floch and Iris

    1976

  • Tiziana Zanecla

    1989

Views

June Newton's images capture the soul and spirit of her subjects, rather than the "je ne sais quoi" of glamour. As a female photographer, she is interested in the psychology of her sex and captures other women on film in a distinctive and powerful way. June Newton's work establishes an honest and intimate relationship between photographer and model.

Under the pseudonym of Alice Springs, June does more than document the appearance of celebrities and anonymous contemporaries; she captures their charisma, their aura. Her eye for people is mostly concentrated on people's faces. Occasionally she narrowly frames her subjects in a half- or three-quarters' length portrait, where the hands receive special attention as well. It might be, that her deep knowledge of acting helps, how to simultaneously look at and beyond the human façade. This is particularly evident in her double portraits, in which the protagonists' interaction is perfectly staged.

There is a certain sense of familiarity in her images; actually they oscillate between distance and intimacy. In her subtle portraits, the viewers encounter the haughty stance alongside natural self-confidence, as well as the shy glance. Dramatic poses are seldom, and the process occurs without grand gestures on the part of the photographer. Her images are visual commentaries, that interpret the photographed.

Quotations: "It was during dinner one evening just before the first publication of my photographs, that Helmut asked me what name I intended to use. Jean Seberg and her Spanish boyfriend, Ricardo, were among the guests and Ricardo asked for an atlas, which I produced. He opened it to the map of Australia, asked for a pin, told me to shut my eyes and aim. The pin landed at the center of The Continent."

Personality

Once, June gifted her husband a video camera for Christmas. He never displayed any interest in it. One day, she picked it up and started filming their life together. She recorded every important moment of their lives, from candid to professional. This eventually became the documentary, "Helmut by June," which was shown in 1995. After film director, Brett Ratner, saw it, he added some additional footage and released it in America. Ratner's version was broadcast for the first time on Cinemax on April 30, 2007.

Connections

June married Helmut Newton, a photographer, in Melbourne in 1948. June and Helmut's first meeting occurred in 1947 at his studio in Melbourne. He was in the city for work, having left his native Germany in 1938, after spending a brief period in a concentration camp. The couple resided in Paris for 27 years before relocating to Monte Carlo, spending their winters in Los Angeles. Helmut was killed in a vehicular accident in Los Angeles, on January 23, 2004, at the age of 83. They did not have any children.

Late Husband:

Helmut Newton

Helmut Newton (born October 31, 1920 - died January 23, 2004) was a notable German-Australian photographer. He was a prolific, widely imitated fashion photographer, whose provocative, erotically charged black-and-white photos were a mainstay of Vogue and other publications.

References

• Contemporary Authors New Revision Series In response to the escalating need for up-to-date information on writers, Contemporary Authors New Revision Series (Volume 198) brings researchers the most recent data on the world's most popular authors.
  2010
• Alice Springs: The Paris MEP Show Coinciding with a major retrospective at the Helmut Newton Foundation, which was shown at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, this collection celebrates Alice Springs's work with a focus on the glamour and seedy excitement of 1980's Melrose in Los Angeles, as well as some of her most compelling self-portraits and studies of Helmut. It celebrates Springs's sensitivity to subjects in composition and her particular skill at capturing the charisma, animating a figure or face.
  2016