Erwin Blumenfeld, a Jew born in Berlin, Germany, has been hailed by the Western media as "one of the most influential photographic masters of the twentieth century" by the Western media after two world wars, and the BBC calls him "The Man Who ShotBEAUTIFUL WOMEN".
Owen Blumenfeld (1897–1969)
Erwin Blumenfeld began his career in photography in 1897, taking this selfie of the costumed piero at the age of 14.
Blumenfeld began his photographic work in the 1930s and was heavily influenced by Dadaism, known for his surrealist fashion photography, with deep collaborations with Vogue and Harper's Bazaar magazines. His photographs are abstract, distorted and unexpectedly composed, giving a strong visual impact.
His practicality of color, creative ideas and framing methods are eye-catching, and his natural sense of picture set grasping and experimental shooting have made him a leader among photographers of the same era, occupying a special position at the forefront of fashion.
After entering the fashion industry, he made people's views on the pictures in magazines and newspapers change greatly. He used to call art directions "rice bucket directors"—as if the involvement of those art directors had infuriated him. But, according to reports, that strained relationship didn't stop him from becoming the world's highest-paid fashion photographer in the 1950s.
Subsequently, in 1939 he contributed one of his masterpieces, The Woman on the Eiffel Tower, a fashion blockbuster filmed by Erwin Blumenfeld for the French version of Vogue in 1939. It was this set of immortal masterpieces in the history of fashion photography that established Erwin Blumenfeld's fashion status.
In addition to Erwin Blumenfeld's unique approach, "The Woman on the Eiffel Tower" stands out in addition to the way Lisa Fonssagrives makes almost unbalanced movements at the Eiffel Tower spire and lets the skirt drift in the wind. This was a stark visual contrast to the elegant styling style that prevailed at the time.
In 1941, to escape World War II, he moved to Manhattan, New York, and opened a studio in a location overlooking South Central Park. After World War II, he traveled to New York and visited the office of Carmel Snow, the editor-in-chief of Bazaar. The highly recognizable compositions and color combinations under his lens, as well as the sculptural and abstract photographs, became the hallmarks of the 1940s and 1950s.
One of the most famous is "Eye of the Doe" filmed in 1950.
1950s《Vogue》
This photo is overexposed with hard wide light. Blumenfeld hid her face, leaving only an eye, lip, and a beauty mole. One of the biggest features of his work is that it breaks the mold.
He has been experimenting with his commercial work while shooting, using different filters, lighting and post-processing effects during the shoot. His use of color, creative ideas and framing methods have made him a leader among photographers of his generation, occupying a special position at the forefront of fashion.
On July 4, 1969, Erwin Blumenfeld died of a heart attack in Italy. He demarcated the end of his life by committing suicide, and knowing that he had a heart attack, he ran among the stairs of Plaza de España, induced a heart attack, and eventually died in the arms of his last lover, Marina Schinz.
Nutrition: Dadaism
*The Dadaist art movement is a genre of art that appeared between 1916 and 1923.
*Its characteristics include: rejection of conventional artistic standards / pursuit of sober irrationality / disillusionment / pursuit of unintentionality. Realms of chance and casual doing and so on.
* Dadaism itself is an important genre of modernism. As a commentary on art and the world, "Dada" itself becomes an art.