June Newton

"June Browne" redirects here. For the British actress, see June Brown.
June Newton
Born June Browne
1923 (age 92–93)
Melbourne, Australia
Residence Monte Carlo, Monaco
Other names June Brunell, Alice Springs
Occupation Actress, photographer
Spouse(s) Helmut Newton (m. 1948–2004)

June Newton (née Browne, 1923)[1][2] is an Australian actress and photographer. As an actress she was known professionally as June Brunell and won the Erik Kuttner Award for Best Actress in 1956.[2][3] Since 1970 she has worked as a photographer under the pseudonym Alice Springs.[2][4] Her photographs have appeared in publications such as Vanity Fair, Interview, Elle and Vogue.[1][5]

She is the widow of fashion photographer Helmut Newton.[4][5]

Biography

Modelling and acting

June Browne, a Melbourne native,[1][2] first met Berlin-born photographer Helmut Newton in 1947 at his studio in Melbourne.[5][6] Browne was working as an actress under the surname Brunell (to avoid confusion with a local actress named June Brown)[2] and had answered an ad for some modelling work at Helmut's studio.[5][6] The couple were married the following year.[2][5]

June Newton, still acting under the surname Brunell, won the Erik Kuttner Award for Best Actress in 1956,[3] an award handed out for excellence in theatre in Melbourne.[7] Although she was finding success in Australia as an actress, Helmut was offered a year-long contract with British Vogue[5] and the couple moved to London in 1957.[6] While there, June found acting work with the BBC.[5] Helmut did not enjoy his time there and the couple left England.[5]

In the following years Helmut found work with such publications as Jardin des Modes and Australian Vogue.[6] By 1960 the couple settled in Paris and Helmut's photographic career flourished.[5][8]

Photography

June's work as a photographer began in 1970 when she stepped-in for her husband who had fallen ill.[2][5][9] Helmut was scheduled to photograph a model for an ad for Gitanes cigarettes when he came down with the flu.[5] Unable to contact the model to cancel their appointment, Helmut gave his wife a quick lesson in photography and she photographed the model later that same day.[9]

As per a 1987 interview with June and her husband for Orange Coast magazine, June said Helmut decided that she should use a different name professionally as a photographer "because he thought one Newton in the family was enough. And if I didn't succeed..."[9] June's chosen pseudonym, Alice Springs, came from the Australian town by the same name.[10] She selected the name by blindly stabbing a pin into a map of Australia.[5][10] Alice Springs did however find success; by 1974 one of her photographs had appeared on the cover of Elle magazine.[11]

Over her career, Alice Springs' photographs have appeared in such magazines as Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire, Vanity Fair, Interview, Stern.[1][5] Working first as a fashion photographer and later as a portraitist, Newton has photographed such famous figures as William S. Burroughs, Anthony Burgess, Catherine Deneuve, Graham Greene, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Mapplethorpe, Christopher Reeve, Diana Vreeland, Yves Saint Laurent, Brigitte Nielsen and Nicole Kidman.[5][9][12][13]

Throughout her photographic career, Newton continued to work as her husband's art-director, acting both as editor and curator of Helmut's work.[5][12] She also appeared in some of her husband's photos.[14]

Helmut by June

The Newtons lived in Paris for 27 years and then moved to Monte Carlo — wintering in Los Angeles for 3 months of the year.[4][9] Their lives were documented in the 1995 tele-film Helmut by June, co-produced by the French pay-TV channel Canal+.[15] The majority of the footage for the documentary was shot by June in the 1990s using a video camera that she had originally purchased for her husband as a Christmas present.[16][17] June's footage was edited down to a one-hour film that was shown in France.[16] This footage was seen by Helmut's friend, film director Brett Ratner, who decided that he wanted to bring it to a US audience.[16] He shot two additional minutes of June talking about Helmut, which he added as an introduction to the film;[16] Ratner's version premiered on Cinemax on 30 April 2007.[16][17]

Helmut Newton Foundation

On 23 January 2004, Helmut Newton died in a car accident, having lost control of his vehicle as he exited the driveway of the Chateau Marmont hotel.[14] The Helmut Newton Foundation opened in Berlin in June of that same year.[18]

Permanently located in the Museum of Photography in Berlin, The Helmut Newton Foundation is housed in a building that stands next to the train station from which Helmut left Berlin to escape the Nazis in 1938.[5][12] The Newtons had been planning the foundation's opening just prior to Helmut's death.[5] The opening of the foundation featured June and Helmut's portraits from their joint 1999 publication, Us and Them.[5] The book features portraits that June and Helmut had taken of one another, as well as photographs that they had both taken of certain celebrities.[5]

Bibliography

Filmography

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 The International Who's Who 1997–98 (61 ed.). Europa Publications. 1997. p. 1430. ISBN 1857430220.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Newton, June (2010). Alice Springs: Photographs. Taschen. p. "About the author" section on back cover. ISBN 3836525798.
  3. 1 2 Hutton, Geoffrey (1975). "It won't last a week!": the first twenty years of the Melbourne Theatre Company. Macmillan. p. 157. ISBN 0333175069.
  4. 1 2 3 Baumgold, Julie (6 April 1987). "Mr Peepers's Nights: Dangerous Liaisons". New York Magazine 20 (14): 23. ISSN 0028-7369. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Cook, William (15 June 2006). "Double exposure". Guardian (London). Retrieved 21 April 2013.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Steele, Valerie (2010). The Berg Companion to Fashion (Illustrated ed.). Berg. p. 539. ISBN 1847885926.
  7. ↑ "Mother of two wins an "Erik"". Melbourne: The Age. 22 April 1970. p. 2. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
  8. ↑ Garner, Philippe (Jan–Feb 2000). "Bizarre, beautiful, cold, and crafted". American Photo 11 (1): 88. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Cygelman, Adele (September 1987). "Helmut Newton and Alice Springs Advance the Art of Photography". Orange Coast Magazine (Orange County, California). Retrieved 21 April 2013.
  10. 1 2 Springs, Alice (2004). Mrs. Newton. Taschen. p. 255. ISBN 3822830577.
  11. ↑ Gregston, Brent (October–November 2012). "Just look at me". A Magazine (Beirut, Lebanon: Aïshti) (62). Retrieved 21 April 2013.
  12. 1 2 3 Marcus, J. S. (30 July 2010). "In Berlin, the Sensuous Portraits of Alice Springs". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
  13. ↑ Gostin, Nicki (5 April 2004). "His Better Half" (PDF). Newsweek International. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
  14. 1 2 "Photographer Helmut Newton Killed in Car Crash". New York Times. Associated Press. 23 January 2004. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
  15. 1 2 "Turning the lens on a photography legend". Monaco: Associated Press. 12 April 2005. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 Salamone, Gina (29 April 2007). "Behind the fashion flash". Daily News (New York). Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  17. 1 2 Patterson, Troy (30 April 2007). "That's Sex! A documentary portrait of Helmut Newton". Slate. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  18. ↑ Riding, Alan (10 August 2004). "Photographer and His Art Are Home at Last". New York Times. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
  19. ↑ Helmut Newton: Frames from the Edge at the Internet Movie Database

External links

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