Erwin Blumenfeld

Longtime fans of 'Vogue' and 'Harper’s Bazaar' will recognise the expressive touch of Erwin Blumenfeld, a star photographer of the 1940s and 50s. After a short sojourn in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 1930s, Blumenfeld set up his studio in Paris, where he started to work with fashion magazines ('Vogue', 'Verve') before fleeing to New York to escape the Vichy regime.

From the other side of the Atlantic, he made a name for himself with his audacious style and refusal to conform (in 1958, he was one of the first to photograph a black model). Blurred silhouettes smudged with colours, nudes striped with light, excessive sunlight, off-kilter framing, playing with mirrors and cut-offs – the pages of glossy fashion magazines had never been so stimulating than when filled with images by the Dadaist soul of Blumenfeld, who was ready to use any filter to split with photographic representation.

Arranged around the artist’s multiple facets (publicity photographs, fashion shots, nudes, photomontages and drawings), the exhibition at the Jeu de Paume bears witness to his photographic achievements through no less than 200 works.