There are those who like to watch. Photographers do that for a living. A good one is happy—sometimes even eager—to explain what it is that he does. A great one knows when to shut up. Helmut Newton is a great photographer. Even when he was among the pouts and poses that shooting fashion demands, he elevated the form beyond its winsome artifice. He didn't blink when the careful ironies and subtleties reflected through the lens of his camera back at him. He has always been receptive to the disturbing, visually arresting images that insist themselves upon us. Helmut Newton is a man in search of erotic emergencies. When we asked him if he would like to explore voyeurism—that most personal of photographic tasks—he responded with the images you find on these and the following pages. Here you will see a man whose camera doesn't shudder when it encounters a woman with a proud bosom and impressive thighs as she exposes herself to her surprised, cigar-smoking older friend. Join him as he peeks into a dressing room where glamourous women talk about the men in their lives—and underthings.
Discovery is at the heart of all voyeurism. We can watch and watch, waiting for something to happen. He who watches seizes the initiative to watch. He then turns over that initiative to those he watches. Voyeurs sometimes wait a long time before sparks start flying. Voyeurs wrongly think they can get to know a couple and can even predict their impetuosity. Sometimes even the couples themselves wait and watch. And watch and wait.
Hence, it's best every once in a while just to grab a piece of fabric and pull it aside. To seize the view, so to speak. Then there are those times when a voyeur doesn't have to work at all. A woman will just present herself full length by an open door. Matter-of-fact style. Which is not to say it takes the mystery out of anything. Nor has the portable video camera, as Newton poignantly points out, spoiled the spontaneity. Some scenes are meant to be played over and over again, until the electronic information on the tape fades and crackles, just as the real, human memories do.
