Skip to content

Helmut Newton's "Rue Aubriot" Collection

Helmut Newton's Private Property Collection "Rue Aubriot" original fine art shot in 1975, featuring actress, Vibeke Knudsen standing alone in a lamp lit Parisian street. Styled in a deliberately androgynous outfit made up of Yves Saint Laurent's cult Le Smoking dinner jacket, pin-striped wide leg formal trousers and white tie, the photograph was to immortalize the Yves Saint Laurent aesthetic that took over the 70’s. Newton loved to shot outdoors and this night-time scene, using only the street lighting available, was directly drawn from the nocturnal photographs of his hero, Brassai. Recalling the shoot in an interview with New York Magazine in 1988 Newton said: 'Vibeke was a girl I often worked with in those days. The idea was a man-woman standing in the street at night - the street, in fact, in Paris' Marais district, where I lived for 14 years.’ Newton’s own house can be seen in the background.