One to Watch: Helmut Newton Documentary

Monday night Cinemax will be showing Helmut by June, a documentary of the photographer at work made by his wife, June. (June is also a photographer in her own right, who does work under the name Alice Springs.) The filming began when June gave Helmut a video camera for a present in the early 1990s. He said it wasn't his thing and gave it back. She, in turn, turned it on him. "She was the best person to capture Helmut," said agent to both, Tiggy Maconochie. "She was very unbiased about what he did and it is a very intimate and candid slice of the life of one of the great image makers of our day." The film has been shown previously on Canal Plus in France, but got a new beginning following his death in 2004. Maconochie says June is set on doing a sequel with some of the material that was edited out of this version. Since his death, June has been devoted to the running of the Helmut Newton Foundation, a museum in Berlin devoted to the work of Helmut and other, living, photographers. The next exhibiton will feature the work of Helmut, Larry Clark, and Ralph Gibson. Anyone who ever met or worked with Helmut knows how incongruous his personality was to his work. In one of the films shown at the opening of the foundation, June said: "Women sometimes ask me how I can live with such a monster. It's easy. Watch." Whether you loved his work or loathed it, it is hard not to be charmed by the man who made it. □