The Seven Photographs that changed Fashion - Erwin Blumenfeld

This week I watched a short film on The Seven Photographs that changed Fashion and was fascinated by each photographers work and the thought process behind them. Each photographer worked in a different way but a way that suited them and each one captured beautiful original photographs that were and still are iconic today.
The photograph that stood out to me was the image that Erwin Blumenfeld captured in 1950 for French Vogue.

Published: January 1st 1950

Photographer: Erwin Blumenfeld

Model: Jean Planchett

 

This photo was originally taken in black and white but Blumenfeld took different areas of the photograph to focus on (the eyes and lips) and made them the focal point of the image. It almost looks like pop art and certain areas such as the shadow below the lips, the colour on the eyes were painted on afterwards as Erwin Blumenfeld liked to play around with colour and shadow and his original idea was to bleach out the image and manipulate the image later. He liked to think outside the box and shot countless numbers of Vogue images using art as his main focus. This famous image weridly works as you are drawn in by the colours used and the way that model seems to be looking at you through this image. I admire how Erwin Blumenfeld has been creative and explored new possibilities and hope to be able to be so daring with my own photography in these next three years and throughout my career.
In the short film of 'The Seven Photographs that changed Fashion' Rankin recreates Blumenfeld's iconic photograph with a modern day twist using Heidi Klum as the model and editing the photo using modern technology to do exactly what Erwin did. He added the eyeshadow and shadowing below the lip in the same way but decided on a more modern final image that showed the model's personality.
Here was the final image that Rankin decided to choose as his representation.

 

I like this image as it embodies femininity with the lashes and lips being in full view but also as I mentioned previously it shows personality which I think is extremely important when capturing a beauty shot. The way that her tongue is positioned is a more modern take on the original photograph as now we are much more expressive and experimental with photography and sexuality combined. Erwin Blumenfeld's work jumped out at me the most I think because of the colour and how different this photograph was, however all of the photographer's work that was shown in the film is such an inspiration and gives me so many ideas of my own. 

First Image Reference: http://www.art.com/products/p12503458610-sa-i6355899/erwin-blumenfeld-vogue-cover-january-1950.htm
Second Image Reference: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4161221/Rankin-Seven-Photographs-that-Changed-Fashion.html?image=1
The Seven Images that changed Fashion Video Reference: http://vimeo.com/60749359
Date and Model Reference: http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/galleries/TMG10064552/Erwin-Blumenfelds-iconic-images.html