Risqué poses, reinvented femininity, fetishistic subtexts: These were the qualities that defined the work of 20th-century photographer Helmut Newton, who will be featured in the first large-scale U.S. exhibition of his work at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in the summer of 2011.

Envision monumental prints made specifically for the exhibition — some spanning eight by eight feet on the walls of the Audrey Jones Beck Building — depicting the entire contents of his three groundbreaking books: White Women (1976), Sleepless Nights (1978) and Big Nudes (1982).

Organized by Manfred Heiting, Amsterdam-based collector and friend of the Newtons, and MFAH curator of photography Anne Tucker, the exhibition was sparked by Newton's widow, June Newton. (Helmut Newton died in 2004 after a car crash in Los Angeles.) While his work revealed a redefined notion of femininity, this exhibition reveals the man behind the camera lens.

Born Helmut Neustädter in 1920, the young photographer survived Nazi Germany by escaping to Singapore and living as a kept man, only to emerge as the preferred female fashion photographer for Vogue in the 1950's. In the MFAH exhibition catalogue, American Vogue editor Anna Wintour describes Newton's work for the magazine as "synonymous with Vogue at its most glamorous and mythic." From Vogue onwards, he was sought out by top fashion houses and luxury corporations for his ability to up the ante of their models' sexual aura. With each shoot, Newton took decadence and indecency to the nines.

The photographer's magnificent mis-en-scenes (which already dominate the water closet of Houston icon Lynn Wyatt) are sexy, sultry — and soon to be ours. The 205 exhibited prints will be incorporated into the MFAH's permanent collection, adding to the 4,000-plus photographs in Manfred Heiting's collection that the MFAH acquired in 2002 and 2004. Purrrrrr.

Helmut Newton: White Women · Sleepless Nights · Big Nudes will be on view July 3 - Sept. 25, 2011.