Paris museum exhibits anti-Hitler photographer

Erwin Blumenfeld fled Nazi Europe to became a fashion photographer in the US, whose most acclaimed pieces dehumanized Hitler

By AP 15 October 2013, 11:29 am

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An employee walks past photos by German-born American photographer Erwin Blumenfeld during the preparation of an exhibition to be held from Oct. 15 at the Jeu de Paume museum in Paris. (photo credit: AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere)

PARIS — A new exhibit on fashion photographer Erwin Blumenfeld, which showcases his dark and experimental side, positions him as one of the greatest and most undervalued photographers of the 20th century.

Blumenfeld made his name with snaps that graced the covers of fashion magazines such as “Vogue” and “Harper’s Bazaar” from the 1930s to the 1950s.

But the exhibit at Paris’ Jeu de Paume, which opens Oct. 15, shows this to be only one of the many faces of the German Jew who fled Nazi Europe and whose most acclaimed pieces sought to dehumanize Adolf Hitler.

The exhibit of some 300 works also puts together black and white photos that used influential experimental techniques with infra-red and frames in the negative, as well as several sections of abstract female nudes.