“To date, everyone has had to die, yet immortality is just around the corner.”
Erwin Blumenfeld
I have always been fascinated by photography, with fashion photography in a way being the reason for my decision to pursue a career in the fashion industry. The escapism of the shoots I saw in Vogue transported me to a dream world of glamour, creativity and imagination, Tim Walker's shoots being a particular favourite. It wasn't until my degree that I delved deeper into theories behind photography, and my love of the medium truly blossomed. Susan Sontag's On Photography fascinated me, and her thoughts are ones I reference time and time again when admiring images, as well as writing about them.
London's latest photography exhibition opened at Somerset House last week, putting photographer Erwin Blumenfeld's archives on display, focusing on his heyday of the 1950s. Having shot more Vogue covers than any other, it's hard to understand why his name is lesser known than the likes of Penn and Beaton, but walking through the exhibition, you will find you recognise his images if not his name. One of my favourite aspects of the curation of the exhibition, is that alongside Blumenfeld's famous covers sit his alternate shots, allowing us to see the work in progress, and sometimes maybe his true interest, as opposed to what the client saw most fitting for its public. I wrote a review of the show for Candid, which you can read here. I touch on some photography theory in the piece, something I saw fitting as Blumenfeld and Sontag shared the belief that the survival of a photographer's images, or an artist's work was a form of immortality, a romantic notion I agree with.
The exhibition is free and runs until September 1st. For more information on Erwin Blumenfeld, read my full review here, or visit the Somerset House website.
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