Helmut Newton

"For the last few years, when on assignment, Martin Parr has had his picture taken by a local studio photographer, or street photographer, or in a photo booth. The resulting portraits range from pictures taken in elaborate studio sets reminiscent of the heyday of the Victorian studio photographer, through to digitally manipulated images of Parr as Mr. Universe, as well as images horrendously re- touched in the studio's efforts to flatter Parr and make him appear twenty years younger. As with all Parr's projects the book is not only hilarious but also raises broader issues of identity and self, questioning the whole notion of the photographic portrait."

Helmut Newton met his wife, June, in Melbourne, Australia, in 1947 -- when he was becoming a fashion photographer and she was an actress. In 1970 June (who changed her artist's name to Alice Springs) started taking pictures as well. She focused on portraiture, while he continued to shock the photography and fashion establishment by melding haute couture with eroticism. Us and Them documents the revealing pictures they took of each other, as well as both self-portraits and celebrities the two of them photographed. The book gives us a glance into a very intimate, warm relationship between two photographers, and between wife and husband. Whether in Paris at their apartment at Rue Aubriot or in the hotel Chateau Marmont, Hollywood, their most intimate portraits come to life. All of these images are testimony to a vibrant and loving, private and professional relationship of fifty years. After the book Pages of the Glossies, which revealed the depth of Newton's work as a fashion photographer, this volume contains, for the first time, mostly unpublished images of the deeply emotional and intense relationship of two well-known artists.