Erwin BLUMENFELD (1897-1969) - Femmes Nue

naked women
Type of print: Authentic vintage sheet fed photogravure/héliogravure.
Date Of Print: 1930s or 1940s
Printmaker/Engraver: La Néogravure, Paris, France
Medium weight, matte finish
Print origin: France
Approximate image size: 20 x 25 cm.
Passe Partout size: 50 x 40 cm.
Mount Board Color: White
Condition Grade: Fine ++




Photographer: Erwin Blumenfeld (January 26, 1897 – July 4, 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 an expert in laboratory work and experimented with photographic techniques such as distortion, multiple exposure, photo-montage, and solarisation.

History
Blumenfeld was born in Berlin on January 26, 1897, to atheistic Jewish free-thinker parents. As a young man, he worked in the clothing trade and wrote poetry. In 1918, he moved to Amsterdam, where he came into contact with Paul Citroen and Georg Grosz. In 1933, he created a photomontage depicting 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 established himself as a photographer and did freelance work for French Vogue. After the outbreak of the Second World War, he was classified as an 'undesirable alien' and interned in several French camps, but in 1941, he was able to emigrate to the United States. There, he quickly became a successful and well-paid fashion photographer, working as a freelancer for Harper's Bazaar, Life, and American Vogue.

Blumenfeld died in Rome on July 4, 1969.