Eye to I: The Autobiography of a Photographer

by Erwin Blumenfeld

By turns acerbic, self-mocking, playful, even absurd, this autobiography deals with all Blumenfeld's subjects - his Jewish family, the Germans, the Vichy French, his models and New York publishers -... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 050001907X
• ISBN13: 9780500019078
• Release Date: June 1999
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.97 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.8" x 6.9" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Wonderfully fun reading

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!

Lively, humerous, surprising

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.

Eye to I really got to me. Fantastic!

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?