Erwin Blumenfeld (26 January 1897 – 4 July 1969) was an American

photographer A photographer (the Greek language, Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographe ...

of German origin. He was born in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, and in 1941 emigrated to the United States, where he soon became a successful and well-paid

fashion photographer Fashion photography is a genre of photography which is devoted to displaying clothing and other fashion items, sometimes haute couture. It typically consists of a fashion photographer taking a picture of a dressed model in a photographic studio ...

, working as a free-lancer for ''

Harper's Bazaar ''Harper's Bazaar'' is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. It was first published in New York City on November 2, 1867, as the weekly ''Harper's Bazar''. ''Harper's Bazaar'' is published by Hearst and considers itself to be the st ...

'', ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...

'' and American ''

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine ** ''Vogue China'', ...

''. His personal photographic work showed the influence of

Dadaism Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 1920 Dada flourished in Paris ...

and

Surrealism Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

; his two main areas of interest were death and women. He was expert in laboratory work, and experimented with

photographic techniques Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed i ...

such as

distortion In signal processing, distortion is the alteration of the original shape (or other characteristic) of a signal. In communications and electronics it means the alteration of the waveform of an information-bearing signal, such as an audio signal ...

multiple exposure In photography and cinematography, a multiple exposure is the superimposition of two or more exposures to create a single image, and double exposure has a corresponding meaning in respect of two images. The exposure values may or may not be ide ...

, photo-montage and solarisation.

History

Blumenfeld was born in Berlin on 26 January 1897, to

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

ic Jewish

free-thinker Freethought (sometimes spelled free thought) is an epistemological viewpoint which holds that beliefs should not be formed on the basis of authority, tradition, revelation, or dogma, and that beliefs should instead be reached by other methods ...

parents. As a young man he worked in the clothes trade and wrote poetry. In 1918 he went to Amsterdam, where he came into contact with

Paul Citroen Roelof Paul Citroen (15 December 1896 – 13 March 1983) was a German-born Dutch artist, art educator and co-founder of the New Art Academy in Amsterdam. Among his best-known works are the photo-montage Metropolis and the 1949 Dutch postage sta ...

and Georg Grosz. In 1933 he made a

photomontage Photomontage is the process and the result of making a composite photograph by cutting, gluing, rearranging and overlapping two or more photographs into a new image. Sometimes the resulting composite image is photographed so that the final image ...

showing

Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...

as a skull with a

swastika The swastika (卐 or 卍) is an ancient religious and cultural symbol, predominantly in various Eurasian, as well as some African and American cultures, now also widely recognized for its appropriation by the Nazi Party and by neo-Nazis. It ...

on its forehead; this image was later used in

Allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

material in 1943. He married Lena Citroen, with whom he had three children, in 1921. In 1922 he started a

leather goods Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning, or chemical treatment, of animal skins and hides to prevent decay. The most common leathers come from cattle, sheep, goats, equine animals, buffalo, pigs and hogs ...

shop, which failed in 1935. He moved to Paris, where in 1936 he set up as a photographer and did free-lance work for French ''

''. After the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

he was placed as an "undesirable alien" in several French

internment camps Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without Criminal charge, charges or Indictment, intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects ...

, but in 1941, he was able to emigrate to the United States. There he soon became a successful and well-paid

, and worked as a free-lancer for ''

'', ''

'' and American ''

''. Blumenfeld died in Rome on 4 July 1969.

Publications

Blumenfeld started working on ''Blumenfeld: Meine 100 Besten Fotos'' in 1955; it was eventually published in 1979; an English translation, ''Blumenfeld: My One Hundred Best Photos'', was published in New York in 1981. Another autobiographical work was published in German by in 1998, and in English as ''Eye to I: The Autobiography of a Photographer'' by

Thames and Hudson Thames & Hudson (sometimes T&H for brevity) is a publisher of illustrated books in all visually creative categories: art, architecture, design, photography, fashion, film, and the performing arts. It also publishes books on archaeology, history, ...

in 1999.

Retrospective exhibitions

* 1979:

Musée Rath The Musée Rath is an art museum in Geneva, used exclusively for temporary exhibitions. Its building is the oldest purpose-built art museum in Switzerland, and the original home of Geneva's Musée d'Art et d'Histoire. It is located on Place Neu ...

, Geneva, Switzerland * 1981:

Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...

, Paris * 1996:

Barbican Centre The Barbican Centre is a performing arts centre in the Barbican Estate of the City of London and the largest of its kind in Europe. The centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhi ...

, London, travelling exhibition, also shown in Zurich, Lausanne, Berlin, Paris and Amsterdam * 2006: ''Erwin Blumenfeld, his Dutch years'',

Fotomuseum Den Haag The Fotomuseum Den Haag (The Hague Museum of Photography) is a museum in the field of photography in The Hague. The museum was founded in 2002 as part of the Kunstmuseum Den Haag and works closely with the Print Room of the Leiden University Librar ...

, The Hague, The Netherlands * 2009: ''Erwin Blumenfeld Dada Montagen 1916-1933'',

Berlinische Galerie The Berlinische Galerie is a museum of modern art, photography and architecture in Berlin. It is located in Kreuzberg, on Alte Jakobstraße, not far from the Jewish Museum. History The Berlinische Galerie was founded in 1975

, Berlin * 2012: ''Studio Blumenfeld, New York, 1941-1960'', Nicéphore-Niépce Museum, Châlon-sur-Saône, France * 2013: "Erwin Blumenfeld", Jeu de Paume Gallery, Paris, October 2013 to January 2014. * 2022: "Erwin Blumenfeld: Fashion is a Game",

La Samaritaine La Samaritaine (French pronunciation: a samaʁitɛn is a large department store in Paris, France, located in the first arrondissement. The nearest métro station is Pont-Neuf, directly in front at the quai du Louvre and the rue de la Monnaie ...

department store, Paris, February to May, 2022 * 2022: "Les Tribulations d’Erwin Blumenfeld, 1930-1950", musée d'Art et d'Histoire du judaïsme, Paris, October 2022 to March 2023 From 13 October 2022 to 5 March 2023, the

Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme The Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme or mahJ (English: "Museum of Jewish Art and History") is the largest French museum of Jewish art and history. It is located in the Hôtel de Saint-Aignan in the Le Marais, Marais district in Paris. The ...

in Paris announced an exhibition titled "The Trials and Tribulations of Erwin Blumenfeld, 1930-1950". Presenting 180 photographs and an accompanying catalog, this exhibition spans what the curators considered Blumenfeld’s most famous and most experimental period. Further, it presents information on his artistic vision and his life during the Second World War. Apart from his well-known fashion photography, previously unpublished photo stories were included: One on a

gypsy The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sign ...

family at

Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer (, lit.: "Saint Marys of the Sea"; Provençal Occitan: ''Li Santi Mario de la Mar'') is the capital of the Camargue ( Provençal Occitan ''Camarga'') in the south of France. It is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône ...

Provence Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bor ...

, France, and the other on ceremonial dances of Native Americans in

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

References

External links

Webpage by the Estate of Erwin Blumenfeld

Excerpts of the catalog for the exhibition "The Trials and Tribulations of Erwin Blumenfeld,1930-1950"
(in French) {{DEFAULTSORT:Blumenfeld, Erwin Commercial photographers Fashion photographers 1897 births 1969 deaths German photographers Photographers from Berlin 20th-century American photographers German emigrants to the United States Fine art photographers

History

Publications

Retrospective exhibitions

References

Further reading

External links