From well-known portraits of Monacos beautiful people to rarely seen landscapes, this collection of images documents two decades of Helmut Newtons love affair with a sun-kissed world. Helmut Newton was in his 60s and a well-established photographer when he and his wife moved to the Riviera. At an age when many people would consider beginning retirement, Newton instead plunged headfirst into one of the most prolific and liberating stages of his career. The city of Monaco was the perfect backdrop for his fashion photography, and it also provided him with a wealth of subjects for his famous portraits, including the stars of the Ballet de Monte-Carlo and the Princely Family. And it was in Monaco that Newton finally tried his hand at landscapes. While this volume focuses primarily on the years of 1981-2004, it also looks at Newtons historic links with the Côte dAzur and the area around Bordighera, Italy. There are essays by a range of experts in the field of photography, film, and art and three interviews, including one with Paloma Picasso. In these remarkable photographs readers will discover the Riviera through Newtons fascinated, slightly ironic lens: a way of life characterized by ease and elegance, a world dominated by appearance and superficiality, and a veritable living theatre in which he was both actor and privileged member of the audience.

Matthias Harder is the director of the Newton Foundation in Berlin.