Feminism . photography by Helmut Newton. They are coming.

They are coming.

The title, Sie kommen, sounds portentous in German, as if these girls are vanguard elements in an invading army. It is similar with the way that feminism invades in the western society in that period. They wear their skin as if it is a costume to which they are more or less indifferent. They care only to dominate our minds, and our every day life, with their beauty, and style. Newton was one of the first that understood, feminism. We see in his work a sense of worshiping the female body, and the understanding of its power.
Another problem which performers and major public artist faced in the 1970s and 80s was that of appearing in public without being used up by the event, this picture is a very good example of that; here the powerful models absented themselves as personalities and used the event to pass the message. “We are coming”. Thus Newton’s major models put themselves on show as impassively as it they were.
So their portraits become specimen pictures, anthropological and anatomical studies.