Meet the biggest and most expensive book produced in the 20th century. Helmut Newton’s SUMO by Taschen, which cost $15,000 and sold out immediately, had a limited edition of 10,000 copies worldwide, each signed and numbered by Newton. SUMO also includes a custom bookholder designed by Philippe Starck.
Measuring 20 x 27.5 inches and weighing approx. 66 lb., the book contains 464 pages, and is a tribute to the twentieth century’s most influential, intriguing and controversial photographer.
“I wanted to build a monument to the most important photographer of the 20th century,” comments Benedikt Taschen, the publisher behind SUMO.
SUMO, edited by June Newton, features a wide selection of over 400 pictures, most of which are published for the first time, covering every aspect of Newton’s career in photography: from his stunning fashion photographs, which pointed the way for generations of photographers, to his nudes and celebrity portraits.
Newton himself describes SUMO as “terrifying and outrageous. I don’t even look at it as a book…. I look at it as an object.”
