- Hardcover: 384 pages
- Publisher: Thames and Hudson (Jun 1 1999)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 050001907X
- ISBN-13: 978-0500019078
- Product Dimensions: 24.2 x 17.4 x 4.4 cm
- Shipping Weight: 866 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #803,617 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Although Erwin Blumenfeld would no doubt have emphatically denied it, his autobiography might be seen as an example of the trajectory of an artistic life brutally fashioned by the vicissitudes of 20th-century European history. Born in 1896 into a bourgeois Berlin Jewish family, he served in the German army during World War I, was linked to the Berlin dada coterie, and was interned in France in World War II, all before finally immigrating to America and finding eventual acclaim as one of this century's great photographers. Such a bald summary actually does this book a disservice. Avoiding the self-justifications and stage-managed chronologies of the typical autobiography, Blumenfeld's story is a witty and linguistically exuberant delight, abounding in puns and narrative passages that rival the work of many professional writers.
Eye to I is merciless in its treatment of the author himself--chance and accident guide Blumenfeld far more than heroics or judgment, to which his account of the series of brutal internments in French concentration camps attests. But then again, it is precisely this attitude that helps him survive: the 20th century was not made for the rational, and Blumenfeld's irony and ridicule is perversely a mark of the utmost sanity. Berlin dada, only fleetingly mentioned, must have helped hone these weapons--the only ones that an artist like him could wield. Blumenfeld proved himself as quirky and original a prose writer as he was a photographer; this beautifully translated book with its too-brief selection of extraordinary images (including an astonishing 1933 photomontage of Hitler) is a marvelous testament to a life and to art vigorously and joyously made. --Burhan Tufail, Amazon.co.uk
From Publishers Weekly
The late fashion photographer's work for Harper's Bazaar and VogueAurbane photos that were the "New Yorkiest" of New YorkAwere created in spite of the meddling and conniving of "hideous" and "nasty" art directors and fashion editors. Or so Blumenfeld (1896-1969) would have us believe in this caustic, vigorously sardonic memoir, first published in Germany in 1976. It's a raucous narrative, rich with beguiling tall tales, narrow escapes and praise for some of the kinder denizens of the demimonde. The ability to survive and even flourish in hostile environments is Blumenfeld's recurrent theme, but these struggles unfold mostly in the classrooms and parlors of turn-of-the-century Berlin and the battlefields and concentration camps of the world wars. Unsparing humor and a compelling sense of the absurd invigorate Blumenfeld's tales of WWI, when he was pressed into service as an ambulance driver (he was the only survivor when, "driving with neither lights nor experience," his loaded "Corpse-Carrier" overturned). He was also the bookkeeper of Field Brothel No. 209 (in service of a unit diagnosed as "one hundred percent syphilitic"Aattributable, perhaps, to the practice of recycling hard-to-find condoms); a go-between for an amorous nun and priest; and a French tutor to an obtuse sergeant (who when hiring Blumenfeld awarded him the Iron Cross). His reminiscences about his brutal internment in a French concentration camp during WWII unleash some of his most vitriolic and hilarious rhetoric, not only at Hitler (the "idol of lavatory manufacturers" whose likeness, superimposed on a crystal skull, was the author's first celebrated photograph) but also at the French collaborators, in whose pestilential camps the photographer was imprisoned. Illustrations.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lively, humerous, surprising,
By A Customer
This review is from: Eye To I (Hardcover)
Coming across "Eye To I" feels like a blast of fresh air. Erwin Blumenfeld, renowned as a fashion photographer of the 40th and 50th, gives us a merciless picture of what it takes to reach the top as an artist during the first half of the 20th century. With ferocious humor he settles his accounts with a world of pretense, prejudice and hypocrisy.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Eye to I really got to me. Fantastic!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Eye To I (Hardcover)
I simply loved this tale of our century. It's witty, iconoclastic, trenchant, hilarious, improbable all at the same time. The reviews I have read are, as usual bizarre: They miss the excellence of the translation, the breadth of Blumenfeld's vision, the fact that you can't put it down once you start & that it is simply a brilliant read. The author's recollections of his childhood in Berlin are simply astounding. His descriptions of WWI are full of th most incredible horror. His efforts to find himself in Amsterdam are hilarious. His rise in the world of fashion photography first in Paris and thn in New York bring us right into the middle of th 20th Century madness. For Blumenfeld's narrative is of a world gone mad. And who can deny that it has?
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews) 5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Eye to I really got to me. Fantastic!,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Eye To I (Hardcover)
I simply loved this tale of our century. It's witty, iconoclastic, trenchant, hilarious, improbable all at the same time. The reviews I have read are, as usual bizarre: They miss the excellence of the translation, the breadth of Blumenfeld's vision, the fact that you can't put it down once you start & that it is simply a brilliant read. The author's recollections of his childhood in Berlin are simply astounding. His descriptions of WWI are full of th most incredible horror. His efforts to find himself in Amsterdam are hilarious. His rise in the world of fashion photography first in Paris and thn in New York bring us right into the middle of th 20th Century madness. For Blumenfeld's narrative is of a world gone mad. And who can deny that it has?
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lively, humerous, surprising,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Eye To I (Hardcover)
Coming across "Eye To I" feels like a blast of fresh air. Erwin Blumenfeld, renowned as a fashion photographer of the 40th and 50th, gives us a merciless picture of what it takes to reach the top as an artist during the first half of the 20th century. With ferocious humor he settles his accounts with a world of pretense, prejudice and hypocrisy.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderfully fun reading,
By Danton McDiffett - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Eye To I (Hardcover)
I really enjoyed the puns and wordplay in "Eye to I," as well as relishing the first-person story of World War I, the interwar years, and World War II. I would have preferred two things, one of which future editions could change, one of which is pretty much fixed, since Blumenfeld has died. First, I wish my edition had translations of all the foreign language phrases, mostly French, that are sprinkled throughout the book. I felt like I was missing a significant portion of the humor of the book by not knowing French. Second, I would have enjoyed more content about actual photography. Subtitled "The Life of a Photographer," that led me to believe there would be more about taking photographs. Even so, those are minor quibbles. Fascinating life and one well worth reading about!
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