Erwin Blumenfeld, a German artist and photographer, is considered to be one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century. He created a wide range of photographs throughout his thirty five year career span which included black and white portraits and nudes, celebrity portraiture, advertising campaigns and fashion photography. He employed fine art in his photography works as well as being a portraitist. He worked for Bazaar for three years after he was imprisoned in Vézelay and then as a freelancer for Vogue. His work was published on the cover of Vogue for the next 15 years as well as being featured in other magazines such as Life, Flair, and Look.
His fashion work was usually shot in colour while his work on other subjects were more monochrome. He used a variety of photography techniques such as double exposure, sandwich printing, solarisation, veils and mirrors. His work has an aesthetic quality that draws in the eye of the viewer, both with colour and monochrome. In the coloured image, we see a clear contrast between the warm red, the neutral white, and the cool blue. The colour is more saturated to grab attention and contrasts vibrantly with the black background. This creates more of an outlined quality with the low-key lighting and defined shapes of the brighter tones within the composition.
In the monochromatic image to the right, the first thing we are drawn to is the black and white outline of the model in the background which is positioned within close proximity of the model herself. The solid black shapes contrast with the more grey-ish tones of the model. This clear contrast of tone makes the composition more intriguing and interesting to look at as it looks like a mix of digital and analogue images, something that we wouldn't have had back in the time period this photo was created. The combination would have been more exciting and unusual back when the image was first created as it would seem more unique due to the fact that there was no technology like what we have today in order to create such bold shapes.
No comments:
Post a Comment