Artist of the day: Artist of the day, May 15, 2020: June Newton, an Australian model, actress, and photographer. (#995)

Friday, May 15, 2020

Artist of the day, May 15, 2020: June Newton, an Australian model, actress, and photographer. (#995)

June Newton (née Browne, 1923) is an Australian model, actress, and photographer. As an actress she was known professionally as June Brunell and won the Erik Kuttner Award for Best Actress in 1956. Since 1970 she has worked as a photographer under the pseudonym Alice Springs. Her photographs have appeared in publications such as Vanity Fair, Interview, Elle, Vogue.

She is the widow of fashion photographer Helmut Newton.

June Browne, first met Berlin-born photographer Helmut Newton in 1947 at his studio in Melbourne. Browne was working as an actress under the surname Brunell and had answered an ad for some modelling work at Helmut's studio. The couple were married the following year.

June Newton, still acting under the surname Brunell, won the Erik Kuttner Award for Best Actress in 1956. Although she was finding success in Australia as an actress, Helmut was offered a year-long contract with British Vogue and the couple moved to London in 1957. While there, June found acting work with the BBC. Helmut did not enjoy his time there and the couple left England.

In the following years Helmut found work with such publications as Jardin des Modes and Australian Vogue.

June's work as a photographer began in 1970 when she stepped in for her husband who had fallen ill. Helmut was scheduled to photograph a model for an ad for Gitanes cigarettes when he came down with the flu. Unable to contact the model to cancel their appointment, Helmut gave his wife a quick lesson in photography and she photographed the model later that same day.

As per a 1987 interview with June and her husband for Orange Coast magazine, June said Helmut decided that she should use a different name professionally as a photographer "because he thought one Newton in the family was enough. And if I didn't succeed..." June's chosen pseudonym, Alice Springs, came from the Australian town of the same name. She selected the name by blindly stabbing a pin into a map of Australia. Alice Springs did however find success; by 1974 one of her photographs had appeared on the cover of Elle magazine.

Over her career, Alice Springs' photographs have appeared in such magazines as Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire, Vanity Fair, Interview, Stern. Working first as a fashion photographer and later as a portraitist, Newton has photographed such famous figures as William S. Burroughs, Anthony Burgess, Catherine Deneuve, Roy Lichtenstein, Christopher Reeve, Yves Saint Laurent, Brigitte Nielsen, Nicole Kidman etc..

Throughout her photographic career, Newton continued to work as her husband's art-director, acting both as editor and curator of Helmut's work. She also appeared in some of her husband's photos.

On 23 January 2004, Helmut Newton lost control of his vehicle as he exited the driveway of the Chateau Marmont hotel and crashed into a retaining wall across the street from the hotel; he died shortly after being taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. The Helmut Newton Foundation opened in Berlin in June of that same year.

© 2020. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by June Newton/Alice Springs or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only