Book Review: Erwin Blumenfeld
Do Your Part for the Red Cross, alternate of Vogue US cover (March 15, 1945), New York, 1945. Photography by Erwin Blumenfeld © The Estate of Erwin Blumenfeld, 2022. Courtesy of Thames & Hudson.
Written by Wenjie (Demi) Zhao
Photo Edited by Haley Winchell
With its interplay of light and shadow, whether in monochrome or color, Erwin Blumenfeld’s photography is clean, striking, and an enduring classic. As one of the most influential and highest-paid photographers of the twentieth century, especially popular in the fashion industry, the introduction by Emmanuelle de l’Écotais lends a unique perspective into Blumenfeld’s creative genius. Using precise language, clear chronological logic, and a wealth of sixty remarkable full-page reproductions, Emmanuelle’s introduction provides a comprehensive textual and visual account of Blumenfeld’s twisted but legendary life pivoting around art and photography.
Self-portrait sent to his gallerist Carel van Lier with his “warm salutations from the concentration camp of thought,” Amsterdam, 1933. Photography by Erwin Blumenfeld © Collection Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. Courtesy of Thames & Hudson.
Amsterdam, Paris, New York. Blumenfeld’s footprints are everywhere. Celebrity, feminine beauty, and experimentation. Blumenfeld’s lens explores vanguard angles and is constantly innovating. The simplification of lines and economy of form constitute his work’s main characteristics. Never waste a second of the viewer’s attention; his work is straight to the point, conveying the most essential story while leaving the viewer a utopia of endless imagination. At the same time, his photographs are grotesquely bizarre, the ultimate representation of Dadaism, satirical and nonsensical, in response to the horrors and folly of wars.
In his introduction, Emmanuelle highlights Blumenfeld’s family background and his tortuous career journey before and after the Second World War. Having fully committed to photography at a very late stage, Blumenfeld has a natural photographic flair beyond the ordinary. At the same time, he never ceased to explore the boundaries of photographic techniques. Solarization to partially invert the image and create a mysterious aura and outline, contortion, and juxtaposition to manipulate the model’s shape, multiple exposures and duplication to accentuate movement, and photomontage to voice his anti-Nazi social resistance… Blumenfeld’s experiments in the darkroom were not defined by convention and are remarkable for his dedication and revolution.
New York, 1947. Photography by Erwin Blumenfeld © The Estate of Erwin Blumenfeld, 2022. Courtesy of Thames & Hudson.
Through Glass and Looking Glass, Picture Post, May 1949. Photography by Erwin Blumenfeld © The Estate of Erwin Blumenfeld, 2022. Courtesy of Thames & Hudson.
“What I really wanted to be was a photographer pure and simple, dedicated to his art for art’s sake alone, a denizen of the new world, which the American Jew, Man Ray, had triumphantly discovered.” Blumenfeld’s vision is evident in his work. With his l’Amour de l’Art, Blumenfeld shows his relentless pursuit of ultimate beauty. Also took inspiration from old master paintings, he made use of colored filters, white lights, and layered cellophane over the frosted glass to achieve calculated yet surprisingly beautiful results.
For Harper’s Bazaar, New York, November 1942. Photography by Erwin Blumenfeld © The Estate of Erwin Blumenfeld, 2022. Courtesy of Thames & Hudson.
Starting with the gift of a 9 x 12 camera, Blumenfeld’s serendipity with photography seemed to be inscribed at an early age. With “the eye for photography,” Blumenfeld deconstructed the traditional perception of photography and opened the viewer’s concept of modern art aesthetics. His works are fluid, unrestricted by space and time, and continue to exude charm after his lifetime.
The Eye of Male Mortality, Picture Post, June 1947. Photography by Erwin Blumenfeld © The Estate of Erwin Blumenfeld, 2022. Courtesy of Thames & Hudson.
