Erwin Blumenfeld
Erwin Blumenfeld | |
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![]() Blumenfeld photographing , photographed by Gordon Parks, 1950 | |
Born | Berlin, Germany | 26 January 1897
Died | 4 January 1969 Rome, Italy | (aged 71)
Known for | Photography |
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a8/Erwin_Blumenfeld_art_photograph_1955_DeSoto.jpg/220px-Erwin_Blumenfeld_art_photograph_1955_DeSoto.jpg)
Erwin Blumenfeld (26 January 1897 – 4 July 1969) was an American photographer of German origin. He was born in Berlin, and in 1941 emigrated to the United States, where he soon became a successful and well-paid fashion photographer, working as a free-lancer for Harper's Bazaar, Life and American Vogue. His personal photographic work showed the influence of Dadaism and Surrealism; his two main areas of interest were death and women. He was expert in laboratory work, and experimented with photographic techniques such as distortion, multiple exposure, photo-montage and solarisation.[1][2]
History[]
Blumenfeld was born in Berlin on 26 January 1897. As a young man he worked in the clothes trade and wrote poetry.[3] In 1918 he went to Amsterdam, where he came into contact with Paul Citroen and Georg Grosz.[1] In 1933 he made a photomontage showing Hitler as a skull with a swastika on its forehead; this image was later used in Allied propaganda material in 1943.[3]
He married Lena Citroen, with whom he had three children, in 1921.[4]:143 In 1922 he started a leather goods shop, which failed in 1935.[4]:143[3] He moved to Paris, where in 1936 he set up as a photographer[1] and did free-lance work for French Vogue.[3] After the outbreak of the Second World War he was placed in an internment camp; in 1941 he was able to emigrate to the United States.[1] There he soon became a successful and well-paid fashion photographer, and worked as a free-lancer for Harper's Bazaar, Life and American Vogue.[1]
Blumenfeld died in Rome on 4 July 1969.[1]
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 as Einbildungsroman by in 1998, and in English as Eye to I: The Autobiography of a Photographer by Thames and Hudson in 1999.[1]
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g Erika Billeter (2003). Blumenfeld, Erwin. Grove Art Online. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T009382. (subscription required)
- ^ Blumenfeld, Erwin. Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.B00021202. (subscription required)
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d Sarah James (2013). House of Dada. Frieze (9) (April–May 2013). Accessed February 2018.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Anne Blecksmith (2006). Blumenfeld, Erwin. In: Lynne Warren (2006). Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography, volume 1. London; New York: Routledge. ISBN 9781135205430.
Additional sources[]
- Naylor, Colin, ed. (1988). "Erwin Blumenfeld". Contemporary Photographers (2nd ed.). Chicago: St. James Press. ISBN 0-912289-79-1.
- Eskildsen, Ute (2014). Erwin Blumenfeld. Photos, Drawings, and Montages. Jeu de Paume. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-19938-3.
- Blumenfeld, Erwin. "erwinblumenfeld.com".
- "Experiments in Advertising: The Films of Erwin Blumenfeld". ShowStudio.
- Watson, Nick (Director) (2013). The Man Who Shot Beautiful Women (Motion Picture). Remy Blumenfeld (Producer).
- Commercial photographers
- Fashion photographers
- 1897 births
- 1969 deaths
- Dutch photographers
- French photographers
- Photographers from Berlin
- German military personnel of World War I
- 20th-century American photographers