The first large-scale U.S. exhibition of Helmut Newton’s work premieres at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, on July 3. Helmut Newton: White Women • Sleepless Nights • Big Nudes encompasses the entire contents of his first three groundbreaking books.

Newton (1920-2004) survived Nazi Germany as a self-supporting, nomadic teenager to emerge a world-renowned photographer. He first cemented his international reputation as the supreme recorder of female identity with his early books White Women (1976), Sleepless Nights (1978), and Big Nudes (1982). More than 200 of the provocateur’s photographs from these publications will be displayed for the first time in their entirety at the MFAH, on view through September 25, 2011 in the Audrey Jones Beck Building