Erwin Blumenfeld | Fashion / Surrealist photographer

Erwin Blumenfeld (26 January 1897 - 4 July 1969) was one of the most influential photographers of the twentieth century.

An experimenter and innovator, he produced an extensive body of work including drawings, collages, portraits, celebrity portraiture, advertising campaigns and his renowned fashion photography both in black and white and color.

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.

Blumenfeld was born in Berlin on 26 January 1897. 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 and Georg Grosz.

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.

He married Lena Citroen, with whom he had three children, in 1921.

In 1922 he started a leather goods 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 Vogue.

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.

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.

Erwin Blumenfeld (Berlino, 26 gennaio 1897 - Roma, 4 luglio 1969) uno dei fotografi più influenti del ventesimo secolo.

Sperimentatore ed innovatore, ha prodotto un vasto corpus di lavori tra cui disegni, collage, ritratti di celebrità, campagne pubblicitarie e la sua rinomata fotografia di moda sia in bianco e nero che a colori.

Emigrò negli Stati Uniti nel 1941, dove divenne presto un fotografo di moda di successo e ben pagato, lavorando come libero professionista per Harper's Bazaar, Life e Vogue.

Il suo lavoro fotografico mostrava l'influenza del dadaismo e del surrealismo; le sue due principali aree di interesse erano la morte e le donne.

Era esperto in lavori di laboratorio e ha sperimentato tecniche fotografiche come distorsione, esposizione multipla, fotomontaggio e solarizzazione.