June Newton, a.k.a. Alice Springs, award-winning actress and photographer, former wife of the late photographer Helmut Newton and President of the Helmut Newton Foundation, died on April 9, 2021, at the age of 97 in her home in Monte Carlo. The board and the staff of the Helmut Newton Foundation mourn the loss of this generous and highly talented individual.
© Helmut Newton Estate / courtesy Helmut Newton Foundation
She was born June Browne in Melbourne, Australia, in 1923. After her school years, she trained as an actress and had numerous engagements under the pseudonym June Brunell. In 1947, she met Helmut Newton, who had just set up a photo studio in Melbourne; they married one year later. In 1956, she was awarded Australia's Erik Kuttner Award for best theater actress. That same year, the Newtons moved to London, where Helmut worked for British Vogue. In 1961, they moved to Paris, where Helmut had been offered a permanent position at French Vogue.
June Newton was unable to continue her acting career in France, and in 1970 she took up photography herself. When her husband briefly fell ill, she stepped in to take his place for a commercial photo shoot - from then on June worked on her own photographic career under the pseudonym Alice Springs. In the early 1970s, she shot several campaigns for the French hairstylist Jean Louis David; the images appeared as f ull-page ads in renowned fashion magazi nes. The first Alice Springs motif appeared on the cover of the French magazine Elle in 1974 and her images repeatedly featured in the editorials of the fashion magazines Vogue, Marie Claire, and Nova.
She had a particular eye for faces; sometimes she narrowly framed them in a bust or three-quarter portrait, depicting fellow photographers such as Richard Avedon, Brassa:f, and Ralph Gibson, as weil as celebrities, including Nicole Kidman, Audrey Hepburn, Dennis Hopper, Billy Wilder, and Claude Chabrol. Different from many of her colleagues she took a more intimate approach, reacting spontaneously in unexpected photographic situations, and allowing her subjects' individuality to shine through. In doing so, she succeeded in lending new dimensions to familiar faces, free of cliche.
In 1976, she oversaw the publication of WhtteWomen as its art director and went on to handle all of Helmut Newton's later books and exhibition catalogues. T wo years later, her own portraits were presented for the first time at a solo show in Amsterdam, which was followed by numerous exhibitions worldwide. In 1981, Helmut and June left Paris and moved to Monaco. They regularly spent their winters in California, living at Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, where they often met with and photographed Hollywood personalities.
In 1995, the couple made the documentary film Helmut by junefor the French television channel Canal+, which was followed three years later by their joint photo book Us andThem, which toured as an exhibition through several countr ies. The special project comprises intimate self-portraits, mutual portraits, and portraits of numerous celebrities, arranged in diptychs juxtaposing the work of Helmut and June (a.k.a. Alice Springs).
Seif-Portrait, Melbourne, 1997
© Alice Springs, courtesy Helmut Newton Foundation
In 2004, June published her autobiography Mrs.Newton. That same year, her husband Helmut passed away. Not only would she assume his role as president of the Helmut Newton Foundation, she was also tasked with overseeing the completion of the project Helmut had initiated and for the most part funded: the transformation of a former Prussian military casino near the Zoologischer Garten train station in Berlin into a museum for photography. She took on the challenge with her characteristic willpower so that the Helmut Newton Foundation could open in the summer of 2004. As its president, June Newton became the driving force behind the development of the foundation's exhibition concept in its first years. Established in cooperation with the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, it is a unique institution worldwide.
