Quotes from Helmut Newton

They often ask me to shoot for them. But I say no. I think an old guy like me ought not take pages away from young photographers who need the exposure.

I did find a wonderful girl last year, but the photographs that we did were more about motorcars.

In the photographs themselves there's a definite contrast between the figures and the location - I like that kind of California backyard look; clapboard houses, staircases outdoors.

Well, it takes a certain amount of money. And I've got to see pictures of the person ahead of time. If I don't like the way the person looks I won't do it.

I used to hate doing color. I hated transparency film. The way I did color was by not wanting to know what kind of film was in my camera.

The point of my photography has always been to challenge myself, to go a little further than my Germanic discipline and Teutonic nature would traditionally permit me to.

I hate good taste. It's the worst thing that can happen to a creative person.

There are two dirty words in photography, one is art, the other is good taste

My job as a portrait photographer is to seduce, amuse and entertain.

The whole series is black-and-white, so when I went to shoot one of the women I only had black-and-white film with me. She had reddish hair and was a very pretty girl, a nice girl.

What I find interesting is working in a society with certain taboos and fashion photography is about that kind of society. To have taboos, then to get around them that is interesting.

People gave us everything for free. We were allowed only so much film per picture, but there was no limit to the creativity. I like to say that they let us loose like wild dogs in the streets of Paris.

I was lucky to have my wife as the art director, and it turned out to be quite something - a great success. I'm very proud of it.

I spend a lot of time preparing. I think a lot about what I want to do. I have prep books, little notebooks in which I write everything down before a sitting. Otherwise I would forget my ideas.

Genius and taste don't go together.

It's quite true that what I am aiming at, even when I take portraits, is to get a scandalous picture. I would love to be a paparazzo.

The term political correctness has always appalled me, reminding me of Orwell's Thought Police and fascist regimes.

I like photographing women who appear to know something of life. I recently did a session with a great beauty, a movie star in in her thirties. I photographed her twice within three weeks and the second time I said: You're much more beautiful today than you were three weeks ago. And she replied: But I'm also three weeks older.

I hate good taste. It's the worst thing that can happen to a creative person.

There must be a certain look of availability in the women I photograph. I think the woman who gives the appearance of being available is sexually much more exciting than a woman who's completely distant. This sense of availability I find erotic.

My job as a portrait photographer is to seduce, amuse and entertain.

I have mixed feelings about those sorts of things. When I see it done by interesting young people, I think it's very valid. But when established photographers, people in their forties, copy me and get a lot of money, well, I find that to be very stupid.

My women are always victorious.

...what I try to do is a good bad picture. I work it out very carefully, and then I do something that looks as if it went wrong.