Few 20th century photographers did as much to smuggle avant-garde aesthetics into the world of fashion as Erwin Blumenfeld. Born in Berlin in 1897, Blumenfeld made contact with that city’s exponents of Dadaism, and carried their revolutionary principles with him when he moved to Amsterdam. There he developed his own variation on one of Dada’s favoured techniques – photomontage. While his later studies for Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar lack the caustic cynicism of these early works, they often exhibit a similarly radical approach to composition. An overview of Blumenfeld’s entire career begins tomorrow at the Jeu de Paume in Paris.
Further reading
Dress-down Friday: Valeska Gert
