Picture of the Week # 386 "Helmut Newton" St. Tropez 1981 & Bonus "June & Helmut Newton"  Montecito, California 1984 Signed & Stamped

Helmut Newton had a home in Ramatuelle in the South of France. At the end of the road was my close friend Arthur Janov's beach front villa. Arthur wrote the definitive psychological book of it's time, "Primal Scream". We all hung out together in the summers as I had a home in Grimaud the next town above them in the hills. St. Tropez was our stomping grounds. Arthur had a boat and we would periodically hop over to "Club 55" for lunch. Anybody who was anybody was seen at Club 55. I had my table there next to Helmut. We continued to see each other on his yearly stays at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles. One weekend we drove up to my then girl friends in Montecito. That's where I took the picture of June & Helmut in one of the gardens of her magnificent 26 acre estate. I remember telling Helmut "you'll want to photograph her." He said  he didn't bring a camera. But when he met her and her sister the next thing I know I see them running naked through the gardens dragging fur coats as the constant click of an automatic shutter was capturing their images. He borrowed her camera and the pictures ended up in one of his books. We had dinner with Helmut & June and France & Arthur Janov two weeks before Helmut's untimely passing. He died at the wheel of a his rented Cadillac in the garage of the Chateau Marmont. A sad way to end a brilliant life of one of the great pioneers of photography. He will surely be missed, but his images will live on.