The Naked and the Veiled: The Photographic Nudes of Erwin Blumenfeld

Thames & Hudson, 1999-10-01. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 1999 Thames & Hudson (London), 9 1/2 x 12 inches tall powder blue embossed cloth hardcover in publisher's unclipped dust jacket, gilt lettering to spine, copiously illustrated with black-and-white and color images, 144 pp. Very slight rubbing to covers, with very minor bumping to the lower tip of the front cover. Otherwise, a very good to near fine copy - 2lean, bright and unmarked - in a very good dust jacket which is nicely preserved and displayed in a clear archival Brodart sleeve. Note that this is a heavy and oversized book, so additional postage will be required for international or priority orders. ~SP39~ [3.5P] One of the greatest fashion photographers of all time, Erwin Blumenfeld is also recognized as one of the most talented and profoundly erotic portrayers of the nude. He aimed to persuade his audience of the magical beauty of the female form, and to show the world that the nudes of the great master painters--from Botticelli to Ingres--could be challenged by the magical potential of the darkroom. Blumenfeld was an inspired innovator who experimented with solarizations, reticulations, negative-positive combinations, and chemical manipulations to enhance the mystery of his images. The Naked and the Veiled features, in both color and duotone, many photographs never before published, as well as Blumenfeld's famous shots such as Nude under Wet Silk. The text by Yorick Blumenfeld, the photographer's son, provides unusual insights into the work and brings a greater understanding of these highly original and complex images. This book shows the full range of Blumenfeld's astounding inventiveness, from the classic to the surreal to the abstract, from 1930s Amsterdam to 1960s New York. It will interest not only those who are already familiar with Blumenfeld's fashion photographs, but anyone interested in the history of the nude in photography who wishes to see the subject treated by one of the twentieth century's undisputed masters.