Erwin Blumenfeld
Erwin Blumenfeld is considered to be one of the early pioneers of fashion photography alongside George Hoyningen-Heune, Cecil Beaton, and Horst P. Horst. It was not only his employment of experimental techniques in the darkroom, Dada and Surrealist influences, and groundbreaking street work, but Blumenfeld's unique and masterful combination of elegance and eroticism that transformed fashion into high art and paved the way for Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Herb Ritts, and other photographers who enjoyed such prominence and recognition in the history of art.
In addition to holding the record for the most covers of Vogue, Blumenfeld's works were abundantly reproduced within the pages of Cosmopolitan, Harper's Bazaar, Life and Vogue during the 1930s, '40s and '50s. Many of the images from these shoots will be featured in this exhibition and have since become icons of the history of fashion photography. Some have never been seen before. But all of the prints showcase not only Blumenfeld's innovation as a photographer of fashion but also his spectacular skill as a printmaker. In his retrospective examination of Blumenfeld's work, William Ewing writes, "His highly original and visionary work was a seamless blend of the negative and positive: taking the picture in the studio and making it in the darkroom."
In the studio, Blumenfeld often employed mirrors, glass, and backgrounds reproduced from paintings, images of cathedrals, or mosaics of magazine covers. He often used veils, which could distort or elongate the figure, confident that a woman partially concealed was more erotically charged that one seen fully nude. He also believed the printing of the image was as every bit as important as the process of capturing it, and like Man Ray, he was tirelessly inventive in the darkroom, deploying a variety of optical and chemical tricks, including multiple exposures, solarization and bleaching.
Blumenfeld was born in Berlin in 1897, and as a young man he moved to Amsterdam. It was there, while keeping a leather goods shop, that he began to experiment with photography and became involved with the Dada movement. He would use the shop's storeroom as his darkroom, and would display his photographs in the windows. Success in the leather business eluded him, but his confidence with photography grew, and when he relocated to Paris in 1936, he set out on the career that was to make him famous. While initially the fashion magazines were reluctant to employ him, the more avant-garde publications like Photographie regularly featured his work. Finally, with the crucial support of the British photographer Cecil Beaton, who was closely affiliated with Condé Nast, Blumenfeld was awarded a contract with Vogue in 1938. In the summer of 1941, just after his release from an internment camp during the German occupation of France, Blumenfeld and his family emigrated to New York. By the 1950s, he was the most accomplished and highest paid fashion photographer in the world.
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Erwin BlumenfeldDoe Eye, Jean Patchett, Vogue, New York, 1 January 1950
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Erwin BlumenfeldSelf Portrait in Paris Studio, c. 1937
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Erwin BlumenfeldUntitled, c. 1946
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Erwin BlumenfeldUntitled, c. 1946
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Erwin BlumenfeldUntitled Nude, New York, c. 1952
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Erwin BlumenfeldUntitled, n.d.
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Erwin BlumenfeldNude torso, n.d.
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Beauty and Style: The History of Fashion Photography
Erwin Blumenfeld at The Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg 12 December 2021Beauty and Style. The History of Fashion Photography from the Collection of the Still Art Foundation opened 12 December at the State Hermitage Museum in...Read more -
Unseen: 35 Years of Collecting Photographs at the Getty Museum
Featuring work by Abelardo Morell, Mona Kuhn, Valérie Belin, & more 17 December 2019The Getty Museum's curatorial team has unearthed an array of treasures that have never been shown here before.Read more -
Erwin Blumenfeld at Edwynn Houk
Erwin Blumenfeld in Collector Daily 24 May 2018Erwin Blumenfeld had a full retrospective at the Jeu de Paume in Paris in 2013, so the arc of his photographic career, and its movements...Read more -
Les photographes de Vogue à Paris Photo 2016
Erwin Blumenfeld in Vogue 10 November 2016De l’érotisme chic de Peter Lindbergh au classicisme bourgeois d’Horst P.Horst en passant par les amazones d’Herb Ritts, les légendes de la photographie d'hier et d'aujourd'hui, complices d'un jour ou de toujours de Vogue, sont aujourd’hui exposées à Paris Photo. Sélection.Read more
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Art Basel 2022
Hall 2, Booth E5 16 - 19 June 2022Edwynn Houk Gallery is pleased to return to Art Basel and present works by Valérie Belin, Erwin Blumenfeld, Lynn Davis, Lalla Essaydi, Walker Evans, André Kertész, Mona Kuhn, Dorothea Lange, Dora Maar, Sally Mann, Abelardo Morell, Erwin Olaf, Irving Penn, Matthew Pillsbury, Robert Polidori, Man Ray, Herb Ritts, Paolo Ventura, Edward Weston, Jessica Wynne, and others.Read more -
Paris Photo 2021
Grand Palais Ephémère, Booth C15 11 - 14 November 2021