Blumenfeld: A Fetish for Beauty

by William A. Ewing, Erwin Blumenfeld (Photographer), Marina Schinz (Contributor)

By the mid-1950s, Erwin Blumenfeld's fame had spread throughout the USA and Europe to make him the world's most highly paid photographer. This study discusses the life and work of this extraordinary man. Highly inventive, he developed his own idiosyncratic language, using solarization and negative printing, double and multiple exposures and a host of hybrid techniques. The work also brings together a retrospective selection of Blumenfeld's diverse achievements including drawings, collages and photographs of all genres.

Genres: Photography, Fashion

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

William A. Ewing is a Canadian art historian specializing in photography. He served as the director of the Musée de l'Élysée in Lausanne from 1996 to 2010 and has been a research professor in the art history department at the University of Geneva, where he has focused on the history of photography. He has curated numerous international exhibitions and authored several books on the photographic representation of the human body. He is also the founder of the Todi Circle, an annual think tank on photography held in Todi, Italy. His publications include The Body, Le Siècle du Corps, and Edward Steichen: Carnet Mondain.

Reviews

[LemontreeLime · Rating 3 out of 5]

This covers a lot of his experimental photography, and only part of his fashion. I was impressed with his body of work, but at the same time a little disturbed at how he focused on disruption of women's bodies as art. (no one was actually injured, it was all trick or art photo techniques.)

[Ellison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shares his life story as he experienced TWO WORLD WARS. Ads, fashion, some bare skin, luv of women and some affairs.

[H · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who knew this Vogue photographer was so complex? Review TC.