Alice Springs: Portraits

18 November 1988 – 12 February 1989

Ran concurrently with Helmut Newton: Portraits

Introduction to exhibition by Terence Pepper

Alice Springs is the photographic pseudonym of June Browne who became Mrs Helmut Newton in 1948. Born in June 1923 in Melbourne, she grew up on a farm and became a professional actress. During the 1940s she met Newton, who had a photographic studio in Melbourne, when she was recommended to him for a modelling assignment. He also photographed her in a number of theatrical productions.

Alice Springs is self-taught: her professional photographic career began in 1970 when she took on one of Newton’s assignments for a cigarette advertising campaign which he was unable to fulfil because of illness, and she assumed as a pseudonym the Australian town. For six years she took fashion and publicity photographs before deciding in 1976 to concentrate solely on portraiture which she felt was a more direct way of expressing photographically her own personal viewpoint, unhindered by the intervention of the hairdressers, make-up artists or stylists necessarily involved in fashion or advertising photography. Her first portraits were of her immediate circle of close friends and then through Nicole Wisniak of Egoiste she went to take editorial portraits for this French magazine. Other portraits, of young writers, were commissioned by Gèrard-Julian Salvy for Les Cahiers de l’Energumène, while Bernard Lamarche-Vadel commissioned portraits of his artist friends. In England, Springs has been undertaking assignments for Harpers and Queen and Tatler, and in New York, portraits for Vanity Fair. The first Alice Springs monograph was published in France by Editions du Regard in 1983.

All Springs’ portraits are taken with a 35mm camera, which enables her to form a close intimacy with her subjects. Whenever possible, she uses only available light and prefers to photograph her sitters in, or near, their own environment. Backgrounds are chosen to frame their subjects but not to obtrude on the composition, as in the two portraits of Lawrence Durrell and William Burroughs. The vision is distinctive and unflinching. She seeks to record but not flatter. Eschewing the meretricious colour which is often a characteristic of celebrity portraits, she uses the more serious monochromatic tonality of black and white which gives a greater control of skin tones and atmosphere.

Press extracts

London Weekly Diary of Social Events ‘Helmut Newton & Alice Springs’, 18 December 1988 – Nigel Swift

‘Alice Springs- the pseudonym used by Newton’s Australian wife, a former model – makes a telling contrast. She and many of her sitters appear in her husband’s pictures but where he uses nudity and charades she is for the conventional pose and the direct look at the camera. The result is people who have character and possibilities. Through the very reserve that her untricksy approach leaves her subjects you can catch a glimpse of their personalities. She also, says the press release, works only with a 35mm camera. In that case the sumptuous velvety depths of her prints are a triumph outshining the rather thin textures of those of her spouse.’

Time Out ‘Alice Springs,’ 4-11 January 1989 – Sarah Kent

‘It’s unfortunate for Alice Springs to be shown at the same time as her ostentatious husband, Helmut Newton, who has stolen the limelight and eclipsed her less self-indulgent achievement. Whereas his photographs tell you more about his psychopathology than they do about the people he undresses, her stunning pictures are genuine attempts to reveal something about her sitters. Since 1976 she has concentrated on portraiture, using a 35mm camera and available light. And although self-taught, she achieves marvellously crisp black and white images that have a rich and beautiful tonal range.’

Exhibition Handlist

1. Isabelle Adjani
French Film actress
Paris, 1979

2.
Anouk Aimée (Francois Sorya Dreyfus)
French film actress
Paris, 1983

3. David Bailey
British portrait and fashion photographer
New York, 1981

4. Balthus (Balthazar Klossowski)
French-born painter, Director of the French Academy in Rome since 1961
Venice, 1984

5. Pierre Berge
Business manager and Director of Yves Saint Laurent
with Yves Saint Laurent
Paris, 1983

6. Antoine Blondin
French writer
Paris, 1983

7. Brassaï (Gyula Halász)
Hungarian-born French photographer with his wife, Gilberte
Paris, 1982

8. Joan Juliet Buck
American writer and journalist
Paris, 1987

9. Anthony Burgess (John Anthony Burgess Wilson)
British novelist, writer and critic
Monte Carlo, 1985

10. David Byrne
Founder and lead singer of the ‘Talking Heads’ with his wife, Adele ‘Bonnie’ Lutz, fashion
designer
Los Angeles, 1986

11. William (Seward) Burroughs
American novelist
Los Angeles, 1984

12. Princess Caroline of Monaco
With children Andrea, Charlotte and Pierre
Monte Carlo

13. SAS Princess Caroline of Monaco
Monaco

14. Bruce Chatwin
British novelist and travel writer
Monte Carlo, 1987

15. Catherine Deneuve (Catherine Dorléac)
French actress
Paris, 1984

16. Hebe Dorsey
Influential fashion editor of the International Herald Tribune
Monte Carlo, 1985

17. Lawrence Durrell
British novelist and poet
Paris, 1984
P540

18. Erté (Romain de Tirtoff)
Russian-born French fashion designer and illustrator
Boulogne-sur-Seine, 1978

19. Loulou de la Falaise
with her daughter Anna
Muse, confidant and friend of Yves Saint Laurent
Paris, 1986

20. James Galanos
Texan and White House courtier
Los Angeles, 1985

21. Lilian Gish (Lillian de Guiche)
American silent film star from 1910
New York, 1982

22. Graham Greene
British writer and novelist
Antibes, 1988
P545

23. Sydney Guilaroff
Legendary Hollywood hair stylist, who worked especially for MGM studios
Los Angeles, 1985

24. Stanley William ‘Bill’ Hayter
British-born artist and printmaker based in Paris from 1926
Paris, 1976
P546

25. Audrey Hepburn
Belgian-born film star whose career began in Britain
London, 1988

26. Anjelica Huston
American film actress, daughter of John Huston
Los Angeles, 1983

27. Fred Hughes
Business manager and chairman of the Andy Warhol Foundation
New York, 1987

28. Christopher Isherwood
British-born novelist, short story writer and playwright
Santa Monica, 1985
P547

29. Christian Lacroix with his wife Françoise
French fashion designer
Paris, 1987

30. Christopher Lambert
French film actor
Paris, 1987

31. Karl Lagerfeld
Fashion designer
Monte Carlo, 1983

32. Barbara Leary
Wife of Timothy Leary
Los Angeles, 1987

33. Roy Lichtenstein
American pop artist
Los Angeles, 1983

34. Joseph Losey
British-based American film director
Paris, 1979
P548

35. Sheila Metzner
American photographer, art director and designer
With her daughters Ruby and Stella
New York, 1988

36. Edwin ‘Ed’ Moses
American Olympic athlete
California, 1988

37. Helmut Newton
German-Australian photographer and husband of Alice Springs
Monte Carlo, 1987

38. Andrée Putnam
Interior architect
Paris, 1983

39. Charlotte Rampling
British film actress
Paris, 1982

40. Bob Raphaelson
American film director
Nice, 1981

41. Christopher Reeve
American film star and ‘Superman’
Hollywood, 1988

42. Yves Saint Laurent
French fashion designer
Paris, 1978

43. Niki de Saint-Phalle
French sculptor and artist
Auberge du Cheval Blanc, 1983

44. Anthony Sher
British actor
London, 1988

45. Joan & Clifford Stafford
Decorator and hairdresser
London, 1981

46. Terence Stamp
British film actor
Hollywood, 1988

47. Sting (Gordon Sumner)
British singer- songwriter and actor
Los Angeles, 1983

48. Françoise Verny
Publisher-Gaillimard
Paris, 1984

49. Gianni Versaci
Italian fashion designer
Milan, 1985

50. Kandice Vettier
With her daughter Vanessa
Paris, 1976

51. Diana Vreeland (Diana Dalziel)
New York empress of fashion; French-born American fashion editor
Paris, 1983

52. Bruce Weber
American fashion photographer
Santa Monica, 1985

53. Alain Weill
French museum curator
Paris, 1985

54. Margot Werts
With her daughter Zuba Zuba
San Francisco, 1985

55. Billy Wilder and Fred Zinneman
Austrian-born Hollywood film directors
Los Angeles, 1988

56. Lambert Wilson
French film star
Paris 1984