Helmut Newton (1920 — 2004) and František Drtikol (1883 — 1961) are rep­re­sen­ta­tive of two dif­fer­ent gen­er­a­tions within nude pho­to­graphy. Both are con­sid­ered as trail­blaz­ers for their re­spec­tive styles. The jux­ta­po­si­tion of 140 pho­to­graphs cre­ated a di­a­logue be­tween the art­istic visions of both pho­to­graphers and targeted their thematic pri­or­i­ties.

While František Drtikol’s nudes are char­ac­ter­ized by geo­met­ric el­e­ments, dy­nam­ic poses and ex­pres­sive light­ing ef­fects, and there­fore are typ­i­cal ex­po­nents of Europe’s cul­tur­al and so­cial hey­day in the 1920s, Helmut Newton rev­o­lu­tion­ized fash­ion pho­to­graphy of the 1970s with his pro­voc­a­tive mise-en-scène of the female body.