Every couple of months at work, we conduct mini workshops to aide us into being well-educated artists. The most recent assignment was to research and do a brief presentation on famous photographers. Each person was assigned a photographer and I was given Helmut Newton, one of my all time favourites. His bold, provocative photographs have pushed boundaries and helped revolutionize the way we view stylized sex-noir. By layering eroticism, glamour, and dark twisted humour to extremes with luxurious sophistication, the King of Kink made fashion naughty and it tickled our fancy.

There are many reasons why Newton was and still is an iconic photographer. His work has transcended through time and are classics in photography and in fashion. Countless photographers and artists, respectively, have re-created or taken inspiration from his work. Newton's moody black and white photography had such intensity and depth that each image was cinematic. Not only did his body of work portray power, extravagance, jet-setter, lust, bondage, S&M, androgyny, and danger, but we all secretly wish we could be a Newton Woman. Powerhouse women, who could stand next to men as equals without physical constraints and centuries of social stigma attached to the statuses between men and women.

Newton was able to capture strength through body language and fashion that was devilishly sexy. All sexual undertones aside, in a way, his work has subconsciously helped influence my ideology of how a woman should present herself — strong and confident. In fact, majority of the women that I admired during my youth and to this day, all had similar Newton characteristics: power, sex, luxury, style, sophistication, androgyny, mystery – perhaps, that was what appealed to me – she was sophisticated, looked expensive, and was sexy while being a complete badass. And quite frankly, who doesn't want to be one of those? I certainly do.

The ultimate onscreen Newton woman, Catherine Tramell, played by Sharon Stone in the 1992 film, Basic Instinct.

Some share-worthy facts and quotes from Helmut Newton:

In a letter written to his friend, Newton writes- "I think that a photographer, like a well-behaved child, should be seen and not heard. I also think that a photograph not intended for publication in a newspaper or in a photo novel needs no explanation except, perhaps, for the date, place and subject. [...] As you can see, I am a photographer of the old school and have nothing to do with art. [...] I shall never indulge in intellectual talk about my work."

"I used to hate doing color. I hated transparency film. The way I did color was by not wanting to know what kind of film was in my camera."

"Some people's photography is an art. Not mine. Art is a dirty word in photography. All this fine art crap is killing it already."

"I hate good taste. It's the worst thing that can happen to a creative person."

"I always kept my equipment down to a minimum two cameras, each with three lenses, a flash that would clip onto the camera body, and one assistant. I did not want to spend time thinking about hardware; I wanted that time to concentrate on the girl and the world around her."