Artist and photographer Erwin Blumenfeld

Erwin Blumenfeld (1897–1969)
“Erwin Blumenfeld was a German artist and photographer, best known for his contributions to the fashion industry between 1940s and 50s. He also employed fine art in photography and was a portraitist as well. Moreover, he made collages and drawing in Dada style. Blumenfeld has been described as among the most influential and innovative photographers belonging to the 20th century. He was born in Berlin on 26 January 1897 to Jewish parents.Blumenfeld got his first camera in 1908, and with it he began photographing and developing. Although he had no formal education in this field, but he still thought of himself as a photographer.In 1913, he started off his career by doing an apprenticeship with Sclochauer and Moses. During the first world war, he was drafted a driver of ambulance in the army. In 1923, he established his own store specializing in handbags for ladies in Amsterdam. It was called, Fox Leather Company.
In 1932, Erwin Blumenfeld found a darkroom completely equipped, so he began photographing the female clientele of this store. The first exhibition of his work was at a local gallery of Carl van Lier. After three years, Photographie, a French journal published a photo by him in their issue.In 1936, his store went bankrupt and following this he went to Paris. The photographer was commissioned to make portraits of people who came from the art world, such as Henri Matisse and Georges Rouault. He did his first commercial project for Monsavon. During this time, he also took images of Cecil Beaton, Valeska Gert, Leonor Fini, François Mauriac, Yvette Guilbert, and Josephine Baker. Beaton was impressed by Blumenfeld and in 1937 got him into a contract with Vogue of France……….More