Alice Springs, Self Portrait, Melbourne 1997
Source: Alice Springs, courtesy Helmut Newton Foundation
June Newton, the widow of the world-famous photographer Helmut Newton, died on Friday at the age of 97 in her adopted home of Monte Carlo. This was announced by the Berlin Helmut Newton Foundation, of which she was the founder and president, who made a career as a photographer under her pseudonym Alice Springs - and after his death defended his life's work with heart and humor to the end. The funeral is to take place in Berlin at the municipal cemetery in Friedenau, where his urn is buried - next to Marlene Dietrich. This is one of the rare interviews she gave to WELT AM SONNTAG in November 2008 in Berlin.
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2006 in Berlin at the Museum of Photography
Source: dpa
June Newton is sitting in the cigar lounge of the “Savoy” hotel in Berlin's Fasanenstrasse and is very relieved that she is allowed to smoke to her heart's content.
The 85-year-old, dressed entirely in black except for white trainers, has an aura of insanity.
When it comes to her Helmut, she flutes like a little girl.
If she tells anecdotes, if she imitates the voices of everyone involved, it can get loud.
As the waiter juggles a round of scotch at their table, his hands shake and the glasses on his silver platter ring.
ICONIST:
If you almost always wear black like you, how many minutes a day do you think about fashion, Ms. Newton?
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June Newton:
Yikes, darling - fashion ??
To be honest: fashion means nothing to me, it never has.
There is only one piece of clothing that I am really attached to: a silk taffeta Balenciaga evening cape.
I even sold my cute Austin Meteor that Helmut gave me when we left Australia in 1956.
For a girl like me it was a difficult little car anyway, almost no brakes, just clutch.
It was on a parade from Balenciaga when one of those vendeuse, Madame Marie, asked me if I would like to buy something.
I only had £ 200 in my pocket.
Then she showed me this cape, oh hohohoho!
Then it happened to me: Goodbye, little Austin Meteor.
ICONIST:
What did your husband say about that?
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Newton:
Oh, Helmut often wore the cape, to carnival parties, at wild parties.
Our Brazilian domestic worker, Carlos, in particular, was crazy about the piece.
Once he asked me if he could borrow it for a ball. I said: Carlos, I'll lend you everything, but you won't get the cape.
And what did this little bastard do: cut the label out of his coat and sew it into one of his shirts.
ICONIST:
Nice story.
Newton:
Yes, there are a lot of them.
Carlos was a cunning fellow.
"Please, please, Miss Newton, you need 200 francs," he once came to me.
"Have to buy fish for lunch ..." I beg your pardon, Carlos, what do you need 200 francs for ?!
Do you want to buy a shark ?!
Oh, and then I remember: Helmut had this wonderful fur coat.
One evening a friend came over for a drink: "You know who I saw yesterday in the metro, in the farthest corner like a shy squirrel?" Carlos!
In Helmut's fur!
Well, I still have the cape today.
It's black, of course.
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ICONIST:
Are you afraid of colors?
Newton:
I wear black, gray, beige, white.
Half of my closet is black.
How many pieces?
I don't count, I'm not German.
Colors at least don't suit me.
ICONIST:
Is this love for black also reflected in your furnishing style in Monte Carlo, where you live?
Newton:
Oh noooo!
No, no!
My apartment, our apartment, is full of colors: From the terrace on the 19th floor you have a direct view of the blue sea, palm trees and flowers.
There is nothing of darkness.
ICONIST:
There's a big black spider hanging on a wall.
Newton:
Art!
Spiders always had a special meaning in my life.
It all started with a spider: We had a beautiful kitchen in Melbourne and guests were having dinner when this wonderful tarantula was hanging on the wall.
A splendid specimen.
Every night she came crawling out with her black legs.
Then the doorbell rang, and when I came back - the spider was gone.
I had a name for her, Jim or something, I don't remember.
"What happened to Jim?" I asked the group.
Helmut had her killed.
Years later in Los Angeles, at the “Chateau Marmont”: We were about to go to sleep when I looked into Helmut's pillowcase.
The devil knows why I did this.
But I looked in there and saw a fat spider, huge and so ugly.
It was an evil spider.
I tossed the pillow on the floor and hit it with my hairbrush until it was dead.
The next day Helmut was dead.
ICONIST:
You were married for 56 years: He, the photographer who showed the world as he wanted to see it ...
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Newton:
Oh, yes, Helmut was a great manipulator.
Soul?
The human being?
Never interested him.
ICONIST:
You, on the other hand, document the world as it is with your portraits.
What's behind your search for the truth?
Newton:
Darling, nothing, I'm not looking for anything.
I would never have become a photographer at all if I hadn't been married to Helmut.
I only replaced him once when he was in bed with the flu - that's how it started.
Then through him I got so close to all these people.
ICONIST:
And have made a career themselves under the pseudonym Alice Springs.
Where did the name come from?
Newton:
It was in Paris, we had dinner with Jean Seberg and her boyfriend.
I had already photographed some very good things, including men with tattoos.
“Tell me, June”, Helmi suddenly asked across the table, “if these pictures are ever published, what name will they be printed under?” And I cautiously: “June Newton ...?” Then Helmut said: “No, No way!
I'm not going to do that. "
Well.
Finally, Seberg's friend came up with the idea for the Atlas: We went to Australia, he took a pin, closed his eyes - and landed in Alice Springs, voilà.
Alice Springs, Chateau Marmont, Hollywood 1991
Source: Alice Springs, courtesy Helmut Newton Foundation
ICONIST:
You once photographed Helmut Newton as a nun, and in high heels.
Which picture came closer to him?
Newton:
Neither of them was the real Helmut.
He himself was the only one who knew the real Helmut.
He was a joker, a clown and the lucky card at the same time.
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ICONIST:
The photos were taken in Ramatuelle.
Newton:
Yes, we had a house there, in the vineyards.
A wonderful time.
You went topless on the beach at "Club 55" while the gendarmerie patrolled the beach.
Helicopters circled above, shooting at us naked in red ink.
And anyone caught with "red tits" was taken away.
Wonderful, isn't it?
ICONIST:
Helmut Newton soon had problems with feminists too.
Newton:
Uuuh, yeah.
Once, in “La Coupole” in Paris, there sat a person like that across from him, not knowing that he was talking to Helmut Newton.
Suddenly she realized it, jumped up from the chair and started attacking him: "So YOU are that monster!"
ICONIST:
On what you defended him.
Newton:
Yeah, I got up and gave her a good nudge.
Haha!
I've always protected my boy, from feminists, from false friends, even from myself. And I still do it today!
Helmut had the biggest ego, but he was naive.
He was wonderful.
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ICONIST:
It is always part of your answers, you rarely talk about yourself.
Newton:
He was my other half too.
We grew up together.
We didn't have anything at first, we were poor.
But there was always enough for a drink.
Life after Helmut is lonely.
But I didn't cry.
ICONIST:
You celebrated.
Newton:
I was late for the memorial service at the pool of the "Chateau Marmont".
Everyone was already seated.
"Helmut was always late," I greeted the guests.
"I'll be late for my own funeral," he always laughed.
And now I've come too late for his ... ”The ice broke.
Talk, not tears.
And it was a celebration that took us up to the penthouse, for dinner, for lunch, et cetera, et cetera.
Still, I've lost my other side.
Fini.
Most of my friends are dead or are dying.
And I haven't been going out for a long time.
The agony of hell that one endures at these galas, where one spends hours waiting, is terrible.
Waiting for someone to finally come and say, well, now you can go home again.
I'm home.
ICONIST:
The party's over.
Newton:
Widows are not welcome in our society, except for charity auctions or donations - ohohoho!
Once I was at an auction in the “Beach Hotel” in Monte Carlo.
I contributed a print by Helmut, very nicely framed.
Perfect for the evening.
It was the first piece to be auctioned.
After the meal was served, I heard the auctioneer mumble tiredly into the room: “1000 euros?
5000 euros? ”-“ 30,000 euros! ”I yelped back.
He held his microphone in my face and asked me to repeat my command.
But I didn't need his stupid microphone to repeat my bid: “30,000 euros!” I shouted into the hall again.
I would never have had my Helmi pulled so cheaply ... Suddenly I heard from the other end of the table: 350,000 euros ... Hahahaha !!!
2004 in Berlin in front of a portrait of her and Helmut Newton.
Source: Getty Images
ICONIST:
You are a fighter.
Newton:
Yeah, I'm strong, terrible.
Where from?
Never asked for it.
What for?
It probably has to do with very personal things about my father, mother and their early divorce.
I had a good relationship with my mother.
But there is one thing I never forgive her: I was once in love with a married man, I was very young and it was very serious.
One day my mother sent me to see friends at the seaside.
I knew exactly why.
She had called this man.
Smart of her, but, hey: stay out of my life, mother!
Or?
No, I never knew doubts or anything.
Neither does my Helmi.
The Nazis have given him the habit of worrying.
And life isn't a dress rehearsal, honey, time is running out.
You have to risk it.
Oh how I hate people who do nothing, women who just sit around bored.
Do something hey!
Become a cleaning lady, chauffeur, work in a brothel, or whatever.
Earns own money.
Everyone is responsible for themselves.
ICONIST:
Have you ever
argued
with Helmut about a photo?
Newton:
We never argued.
Once.
It was after our honeymoon, we got home, in Melbourne.
I had sausages in the pan that had been sizzling for a while when Helmut finally stood in the doorway, telling me that he had spent the morning with his old friend Dora in a beer garden.
I tore the pan off the stove, so that the sausages flew to the ceiling and landed on the floor in front of him.
Helmut just looked at me and said: "If that happens again, June, I'll go and I won't come back." We never argued again, which doesn't mean that I was submissive, oh, no, on that can you take poison!
ICONIST:
Mirja Sachs once said in an interview that it wasn't always easy to live with Brigitte Bardot in giant portraits on the walls.
Have you ever been jealous of these over-women, even if Helmut Newton favored them purely artistically?
Newton:
I always wanted to have long legs.
I was smart in the head.
But I would have preferred nice, long legs.
Why do you think I am wearing pants?
A lot would have been easier with long legs instead of being smart in the head.
But jealousy was never a problem.
You cannot master a life together without occasionally falling in love with another.
Being happy has nothing to do with fidelity or infidelity.
On the contrary, you have to allow affairs to maintain a marriage - and I'm not talking about three years, I'm talking about 56 years of marriage!
You don't have just one love, girl.
Nobody goes through life with just one love.
I had a few flirts, including Helmut.
But there was something we shared above all else: respect, trust, closeness, we were there for each other, always.
About her husband: "Helmut had the greatest ego, but he was naive. He was wonderful"
Source: Getty Images
ICONIST:
You never wanted children?
Newton:
That's a very personal question that I'm not going to answer either.
There are people for whom I was like a mother.
ICONIST:
You come to Berlin once a year, not just to visit your husband's grave.
You will be accompanied by an entourage of around 20 good friends - a lawyer, an ex-model, a Parisian restaurateur, your museum crew.
You always live in the "Savoy", eat in the "Paris Bar" before you drink a last mayor in the "Diener".
Newton:
That's not true, I even come twice a year!
But not much longer, babe, I'm an old lady
Yes, we went to the “Diener”, Helmut and I with our friends, just like that.
So we're still going to see who's still there today.
We used to have this double-decker bus that came to pick us up, but more and more seats remained free.
Today we all fit into a large-capacity taxi.
ICONIST:
That will take you to the forester's house Paulsborn in Grunewald, where the Newtons ate lunch on Sundays.
Newton:
Exactly, always the same, in the same place.
June Newton: "Jealousy was never a problem."
Source: dpa
June Browne was born on June 3, 1923 in Melbourne, studied at the local Roderick School of Dance and became a successful actress.
At the age of 24, she met the then unknown photographer from Berlin, the son of a Jewish button manufacturer who had fled Germany from the Nazis, in his photo studio in Melbourne.
The couple married a year later.
In 1961 she moved to Paris, where she also began taking photos in the 1970s under the pseudonym Alice Springs - initially for advertisements and magazines, later focusing on portraits.
As art director, she oversaw Helmut's exhibition and book projects as well as the selection of images for his productions, she was the curator for his shows, shot the documentary “Helmut by June” and was always a model for him. After his tragic accidental death in 2004
, June Newton opened the Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin in the Museum for Photography at Jebensstrasse 2, which houses her husband's collection.
She was the head of the Helmut
Newton Estate and President of the Newton Foundation.