Animal rights activists, including musician Kris Reichert, center, hold up signs with writing in Italian reading; “Leather: a lethal look” and “I wouldn't wear animal skin even if I were dead” as they stage a demonstration in front of Milan's Duomo gothic cathedral, Italy, Wednesday, September 20, 2017. Milan Fashion Week previews kick off Wednesday with Gucci, leading up to the awards on Sunday night. (Photo by Luca Bruno/AP Photo)

The underbelly of fetish parties has been exposed in photographs captured by Belgian photographer MagLau. The photographer dedicated three years to capturing the obsession with leather and chains, visiting fetish parties through Europe and Japan. The photographer told: “I just took pictures, always finding some beauty in the dark side”. He said that most people were happy to be photographed for the project, with the images included in a new book Fetish Ballad. Aiming to capture the candid moments, he said he never judged but instead wanted to simply observe and understand. Here: Picture from Fetish Ballad book. (Photo by MagLau/Laurent Muschel)

A production department of a textile factory is seen abandoned in Kaduna, Nigeria November 3, 2016. President Muhammadu Buhari hopes to revive the once flourishing textile and leather industries in northern Nigeria to end the country's dependence on oil exports and diversify Africa's biggest economy. (Photo by Afolabi Sotunde/Reuters)

Pupils wearing face masks wait for the opening of their primary school on the first day of the new school year, in Ouagadougou, on October 1, 2020. (Photo by Olympia de Maismont/AFP Photo)

Secondary school graduates play in a fountain as they celebrate the last day of school, traditionally called the “last bell” in central Kiev, Ukraine on May 31, 2019. (Photo by Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)

“Newton was born in Berlin, the son of Klara “Claire” (Marquis) and Max Neustädter, a button factory owner. His family was Jewish. Newton attended the Heinrich-von-Treitschke-Realgymnasium and the American School in Berlin. Interested in photography from the age of 12 when he purchased his first camera, he worked for the German photographer Yva (Elsie Neulander Simon) from 1936. The increasingly oppressive restrictions placed on Jews by the Nuremberg laws meant that his father lost control of the factory in which he manufactured buttons and buckles; he was briefly interned in a concentration camp on “Kristallnacht”, November 9, 1938, which finally compelled the family to leave Germany. Newton's parents fled to South America. He was issued with a passport just after turning 18, and left Germany on December 5, 1938. At Trieste he boarded the “Conte Rosso” (along with about 200 others escaping the Nazis) intending to journey to China. After arriving in Singapore he found he was able to remain there, first and briefly as a photographer for the Straits Times and then as a portrait photographer”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Sigourney Weaver by Helmut Newton, 1995.

Sukaregang in Garut district, West Java, has long been a bustling center for Indonesia's leather trade, with some shops producing and selling various goods – including bags, shoes and jackets – since the 1940s. The industrial area is also a major supplier for high-end brands from across the globe, catering to the fashion, auto and motor-sports industry. Here: a man walks across a vat of water used to wash the hide. (Photo by Rezza Estily/JG Photo)

Secondary school graduates play in a fountain as they celebrate the last day of school, traditionally called the “last bell” in central Kiev, Ukraine on May 31, 2019. (Photo by Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)