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Photographer Helmut Newton dies in car crash

German-born photographer Helmut Newton has been killed in a car accident in Hollywood. Newton (83) was pulling out of a parking lot at the Chateau Marmont Hotel just off Sunset Boulevard at about noon local time on Friday when he lost control of the Cadillac he was driving and crashed into a wall. The car sustained major damage, and Newton died of his injuries a short time later at Cedars Sinai Medical Centre. No one else was reported hurt in the wreck, although the car brushed a photographer heading into the hotel. Police are investigating the accident.

The accident brought to an abrupt end a celebrated photography career spanning eight decades.

Born Helmut Neustaedter in 1920 in Berlin to Jewish parents, Newton was apprenticed to society photographer Yva in 1936 and fled Germany two years later for Singapore. He then settled in Australia, where he served in the army and worked as a fashion photographer before returning to Europe in 1957. After living in Paris where he worked for Vogue for many years, he moved to Monte Carlo in 1980.

Although he once joked that his colourblindness was why he took very good colour pictures, Newton was best known for his shocking, coldly stylistic black-and-white photos of women, usually wearing little more than high heels. His trademark Big Nudes series featured larger-than-life, black-and-white images of women that portray them as dominating the camera rather than as subjects. Men in his photos typically appeared in servile roles, as waiters, chauffeurs or mere onlookers.

In a 1998 interview, Newton declared he was through taking photographs of naked women, saying, "I just had a bellyful and realised I had shot enough nudes to last a lifetime. ... In fact, although I have no idea of the number, I think I photographed too many naked women."

Newton is survived by his wife, June, who works under the name Alice Springs. The Newtons had no children.

Bronnen: Reuters, AP.