Experiments in Advertising

Experiments in Advertising: The Films of Erwin Blumenfeld

WATCH THE FILMS HERE

” Drawing upon the full archive of Erwin Blumenfeld’s unseen film work, film-maker Adam Mufti and sound designer Olivier Alary have collaborated with SHOWstudio to create three, exclusive edits that focus on three discrete areas of Blumenfeld’s visionary motion image-making: Advertising & Layout, Surrealism & Process and Abstraction & Distortion.” (ShowStudio)

I was very thrilled to find these hidden treasures. I am a regular fan of the ShowStudio collaborations and this was no exception. The work of Erwin Blumenfeld is exceptional and through his lens he gave us different perceptions of various concepts, from beauty in fashion photography to Nazism and WWII with photo-montage.

The first film of Experiment in Advertising portraits the fashion advertising of the 1950’s-1960’s, with an abstract, complex composition. We can see a determined style in the clothes, in the woman’s attitude and even in the kind of shots this was filmed. Abstraction & Distortion, the third film, was my favorite. The use of ambiguous shots and diverse lightning styles gives the film a mysterious abstraction, which complements the meaning of fashion throughout the film, re-interpreting the old fashion into our present perceptions.