Helmut Newton had a saying: “Dienst ist Dienst und Schnaps ist Schnaps.” The German photographer, who emigrated to Australia after World War II, meant this: You should not mix work with pleasure. It’s a curious idiom for an auteur whose work is so deeply rooted in the idea of pleasure itself: in the beauty of the female body, in the celebration of sex, in the freedom of movement and the sheer joy and oddity of creativity itself.

But according to film director Gero von Boehm, it’s a motto that made Newton the success he was. With his ability to separate his work from his personal life, he could see clearly the wonder and depth of his own inventiveness, and was able to cajole subjects – everyone from Isabella Rossellini to Grace Jones – into enacting this into imagery.