Erwin Blumenfeld

One of the most successful photographers of the 50's was Erwin Blumenfeld. He was a German born photographer born 1897 in Berlin but most active in France and America.

Original Black and White photo

You have probably seen Blumenfeld´s 1950´s Vogue cover or a replica of it.

This beauty shot of a women´s face is a grapic approach of how beauty shots should look like.  You can only see one eye, the brow and the mouth.  The cover is in colour but infact the origianal photo is taken in black and white.

When he exposed the picture he excluded most part of the face and later coloured in the parts shown.

To make a photo like this in our world of technology, this is long from impossible. But back then, this was extraordinary.      



 

In the 1930´s he lived in Holland where he published this collage mocking Adolf Hitler



In 1940 he was sent to a camp because he was Jewish, he managed to escape in 1941, he then fled to America where his career took off.

on top of the Eiffel Tower

Blumenfeld shot his first fashion commission; images for French Vogue shortly before his fortieth birthday.He was famous for the ability to make commercial photos look like fine art.

With advertising contracts for beauty giants such as Helena Rubenstein and Elizabeth Arden, Blumenfeld became one of the most acclaimed and in-demand photographers of his time. In the 50´s he became the highest paid photographer.

He had a unique approach to the photos and he did a lot of experimentation with them. His more personal works were in black and white, meanwhile his commercial work in fashion, mostly for Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, was mostly in color. In both media he was a great innovator. In his black and white photos he did all his work personally in the dark room. In colour he drew on his extensive background in classical and modern painting.

 

He  had a love affair with the female form and documented it in sensual shots that used technical experimentation to explore themes of eroticism, visual elegance and obfuscation core to European art and intellectual culture of the period