A Dadaist collagist-turned-photographer, ERWIN BLUMENFELD began publishing his fashion shoots in magazines like Vogue and Cosmopolitan in the late 1930s. Working with print solarization and superimposition, and using mirrors and gauzy fabrics to divide photographic space, Blumenfeld transformed both the models and their clothes into collagelike elements. In Red Cross (cover for Vogue, above), 1945, the model's shadowy body melts into the cross that segments the space, with only the green of her hat distinguishable from the red lines that structure her.
Sleek, off-kilter, and provocative, Blumenfeld's fashion photographs showcase the artist's fluency with Dadaist vernacular as much as the clothes he helped to promote.