Artist of the Day, February 25, 2021: Erwin Blumenfeld, a German-born American photographer (#1216)

Erwin Blumenfeld (1897 –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 freelancer 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. 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 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.

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 Eichborn Verlag [de] in 1998, and in English as Eye to I: The Autobiography of a Photographer by Thames and Hudson in 1999.

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Erwin Blumenfeld

Chaplin, 1932

Double Exposure, Amsterdam, 1932

 Mannequin, Amsterdam, 1932

Hitler with Bleeding Eyes, 1933

Henri Matisse, Paris, 1937

 Marguerite von Sivers on the roof of Blumenfeld’s studio, Paris, 1937

 The Minotaur or the Dictator, Paris, 1937

Leonora Fini, Paris, 1939

Lisa Fonssagrives on the Eiffel Tower, 1939

Shadow Profile, New York, 1944

 Untitled, New York, 1944

Vogue Beauty Issue, 1944

Vogue, 1944

Vogue, 1945

Cecil Beaton, 1946

Vogue, February 1949

Doe eye, New York, 1950

Woman behind venetian Blinds, New York, 1950

Juliette Greco, New York, 1951

Audrey Hepburn, 1952

Three Profiles, 1952

 Untitled, 1952

Bryans Hosiery, stockings flowers, 1953

 Shadowed Silhouettes, 1953

 Spring Fashion for Vogue, 1953

 Jean Patchett, 1954

 Pat Blake for Vogue, New York, 1954

 Bryan, New York, 1955

 Chesterfied, New York, 1956

 Nancy Berg for Chesterfield, 1956

Rage for color, 1958