Today I visited the beautiful Somerset House to see the exquisite Blumenfeld exhibition. If you've not heard the name before, Blumenfeld is one of the most influential photographers of the twentieth century, renowned for his highly imaginative and innovative photographs which featured in some of the most highly regarded fashion magazines of the 40s and 50s such as Vogue and Harpers Bazaar.
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| As an avid vintage lingerie and stockings fan, this was one of my favourite shots! |
Blumenfeld optimised use of photo-manipulation that was available at the time, such as print solarization, superimposing, using mirrors and overlaying fabrics to create photographs. He uses these things in a manner which doesn't hide the fact he's used such techniques, but rather flaunts them and makes them a part of the photograph as much as the subject itself.
I feel so inspired by the exhibition to push my photography further by using such simple techniques. I really liked his work where he seemed to use projection and this is something I think I will explore over the summer using a film projector. I think that photography now relies too much on digital manipulation and that we should really explore what we can do during the photographic process.
In regards to the exhibition itself, as always I love Somerset House as a venue. The exhibition was very simple and spacious in layout - if we compare it to the Tim Walker exhibition it was vastly different! However I think the photographs spoke for themselves, although I wished there was a bit more to it in terms of providing information about the images. It was also free so well worth a visit!
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