Further Reading
Blossfeldt, Karl.Urformen der Kunst. Berlin: Wasmuth,
1926.
Blossfeldt, Karl.Wundergarten der Natur. Berlin: Was-
muth. 1932.
Karl Blossfeldt Photographs 1900–1932. Exhibition catalo-
gue. Bonn: Rheinland Verlag, 1977.
Karl Blossfeldt 1865–1932, Das fotografische Werk. Text by
Gert Mattenklott. Munich: Schirmer/Mosel 1981.
Roh, Franz, and Jan Tschichold. foto-auge photo-eye.
Tu ̈bingen: Wasmuth, 1929.
Sachsse, Rolf.Karl Blossfeldt Photographs.Ko ̈ln: Taschen,
1993.
Vergleichende Konzeptionen, August Sander, Karl Blossfeldt,
Albert Renger-Patzsch, Bernd und Hilla Becher. Exhibi-
tion catalogue. Munich: Schirmer/Mosel 1997.ERWIN BLUMENFELD
American
In 1921, Erwin Blumenfeld mailed a postcard from
Amsterdam with a photograph of his face collaged
atop a woman’s body and the words ‘‘President-
Dada-Chaplinist–Charlotin’’ to poet and Dada
founder Tristan Tzara. Tzara and the Berlin Dada-
ists, to whom Blumenfeld was connected, actively
recognized the value of photography and its creative
possibilities. Several key members of the group
would become innovators of photomontage and an
important influence on political propaganda, pho-
tojournalism, and advertising photography follow-
ing World War I. Always true to his Dadaist spirit,
Blumenfeld never ceased to experiment in the dark-
room, using techniques such as solarization and
double-exposures, and created clever, unexpected
compositions in his photographs. He would later
become one of the most sought-after, highest-paid
photographers in the world.
Erwin Blumenfeld was born on January 26, 1897,
to an upper-middle class Jewish family in Berlin.
His father, Albert Blumenfeld, was a principal part-
ner of Jordan & Blumenfeld, an umbrella manufac-
turer. The Blumenfelds initially lived a life of
bourgeois comfort, and the children were treated
to expensive toys as well as regular outings at the
theatre and art museums. During a trip to the Kai-
ser Friedrich Museum, Blumenfeld was deeply
affected by the delicately veiled nudes of Sandro
Botticelli’sVenusand Lucas Cranach the Elder’s
Lucretia. As a result of this visit, veiling and female
nudity would subsequently become a recurrent
theme in his work.
Blumenfeld received his first camera as a gift at
age 10 and described this moment as when his ‘‘real
life started.’’ He shared his enthusiasm with his best
friend, Paul Citroen, a Dutch boy he met at school,
the rigorous Askanisches Gymnasium in Berlin. The
boys commemorated their friendship in a 1910 dou-
ble self-portrait, which they later re-enacted in 1916
and 1926. Fittingly, the young Blumenfeld was intri-
gued by reflected images and fascinated by mirrors.
In his first self-portrait dressed as Pierrot, he cap-
tured simultaneous frontal and profile views of his
face using a mirror.
In 1913, Blumenfeld finished his studies and
began a three-year apprenticeship for Moses &
Schlochauer, a German dressmaker. He abandoned
further education due to his father’s mental dete-
rioration and consequent death from syphilis that
left the family in financial ruin. As he grew disen-
chanted with the garment industry, Berlin was
becoming a dynamic forum for the international
avant-garde. Expressionists, Fauvists, Cubists, and
Futurists exhibited regularly in the city beginning in
1910; the same year Herwarth Walden’s cultural
weekly,Der Sturm, began publication. In 1915, Blu-
menfeld and Citroen met Walden, and Citroen
became the manager of theDer Sturmbookstore in- That same year, Blumenfeld fell in love with
Citroen’s cousin Lena.
Through Walden, Citroen and Blumenfeld met
the founding members of the Berlin Dada move-
ment: George Grosz, Walter Mehring, Wieland
Herzfelde, and his brother Helmut Hertzfelde (John
Heartfield). In 1917, Citroen was dispatched to
Amsterdam as a representative ofDer Sturm,and
BLUMENFELD, ERWIN