Cousin Athol's Portrait of Helmut Newton

A portrait by Athol Shmith from 1957 establishes a personal connection with Helmut Newton's "mysterious" years in Melbourne.

I'm roughly sketching my mother and maternal grandparents' world in Melbourne from the 1930s to when Mum fled for NYC in 1958, aged 19, and became secretary to the Chinese ambassador to the UN. Her feelings about Melbourne were similar to Helmut Newton's, who left with his wife June — known professionally as Alice Springs — for Paris in 1961, and never …