Eye to I

By turns acerbic, self-mocking, playful, even absurd, the autobiography of Erwin Blumenfeld, one of the century’s best-known photographers, is a compelling, virtuoso account of an extraordinary man. All his subjects - his Jewish family, the Germans, the Vichy French, his models, New York publishers - are dealt equal measures of wit, mockery and merciless irony. He spares himself least of all. Born in turn-of-the-century Berlin, Blumenfeld was drafted in to serve in the First World War, first as an ambulance driver (although he couldn’t drive), and then as a book-keeper at a field brothel. Between the wars he became part of an avant-garde circle that included such artists as George Grosz, and members of the Dada movement. During the Second World War, Blumenfeld was interned in a series of French camps, but eventually arrived in New York, where he found work with Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, producing some of their most memorable covers and becoming fashion’s highest-paid photographer. By the creator of some of the most striking and influential photographs ever taken, Blumenfeld’s autobiography is a biting and iconoclastic take on the century. Gripping and full of insight, it is the story of an exceptional life.