Alice Springs Photographs

Alice Springs Photographs. Retrospective at the Helmut Newton Foundation, Berlin

Starting in 1970, June Newton created own photographic works under the pseudonym Alice Springs. These have been exhibited regularly at the Helmut Newton Foundation since 2005, namely in "June’s Room." The current retrospective in Berlin provides for the first time a comprehensive look at the four decades that span her work, presenting photographs from advertising and fashion as well as nudes and portraits.

Her own photographic oeuvre began with a bout of influenza suffered by Helmut Newton in Paris, 1970. June Newton had her husband show her how to handle the camera and light meter and in his place photographed an advertisement for the French cigarette brand Gitanes. The portrait of the smoking model would be the jump-start of a new career. In the early 1970s, Alice Springs shot several campaigns for the French hairstylist Jean Louis David; the photographs appeared under her byline as a full-page ads in renowned fashion magazines. 1974 later saw the first Alice Springs cover image adorning French Elle. By this time she had also received innumerable commissions for portraits, some of which have become iconic. The roster of artists, actors and musicians depicted by Alice Springs over the last 40 years reads like a "who’s who" of the international cultural scene on both sides of the Atlantic. Many portraits were magazine assignments from Paris to Los Angeles; others resulted from private initiative.

Alice Springs does more than document the appearance of celebrities and anonymous contemporaries; she captures their charisma, their aura. 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, we encounter the haughty stance alongside natural self-confidence as well as the shy glance.

The artist:

June Browne was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1923. As a young woman she was passionately interested in the theatre. She changed her maiden name to June Brunell for there was another Melbourne actress called June Brown. She received the Erik Kuttner award for best actress in theatre in 1956. She married the photographer Helmut Newton in Melbourne in 1948 and became a photographer herself in 1970 in Paris, changing her name once again to Alice Springs. She has had numerous exhibitions and books published. June Newton has lived in London and Paris and for the last thirty years has resided in Monte Carlo. Her husband died in 2004, leaving her in charge of the Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin.