I have chosen to look into the work of Erwin Blumenfeld after seeing his photographs incorporating mirrors, I was interested in woking with reflection in this project because of the link it has to variation and similarity, the idea of perspective, opposites and repetition. After researching him more I have found more parallel with his work and my ideas, for example his work with fashion photography where he experimented with shadows, multiple exposures and colours which for his time were all very new and experimental. I am also interested in the fashion industry at the time that he was taking photos and the concept of the ‘perfect’ or ideal model we can see in all his work. This idea if currently being challenged within the fashion industry and I am interested in showing the contrast between his work and more modern versions.
I want to conduct a variety of photoshoots influenced by his work, one using mirrors and reflections, these photos will be very minimal showing variety of perspectives using the mirror concept helping to frame specific sections of my model. The second will be using colour, I hope to experiment using colour films over lights in the studio to create shadow and repartition in shapes. After this I will reflect on my work and see if I want to respond to any of his other work.
This video shows a variety of the moving images that Erwin Blumenfeld produced throughout his career. I am particularly interested in the work he made using mirrors and repetition of an image. In one of the videos we see a women with bright hair smoking and looking in the mirror, this is an interesting still due to the use of colour connection with the blue tones in her makeup matching the posters on the wall. as the video goes on the model starts to make different movements to her reflection and eventually passes the cigarette through the ‘mirror’ before both the reflection and the ‘real’ girl turn to face the camera. This creates and interesting concept questioning reality and perception.
This concept reminded me of something similar I had seen on Instagram, where MLMA creates and posts images and videos which can be linked very heavily to surrealism and the idea of reality and fantasy. A lot of her work comments on the modern society and the generation of social media in a comedic way. She edits images of herself with eccentric makeup and outfits to create imaginative pieces of art often focused on the ideals of beauty. I find the contrast between MLMA and Blumenfeld’s work very interesting due to the time and culture differences and would like to see how I could use both their works simultaneously as inspiration for my own work.
