Erwin Blumenfeld at Somerset House

Today I went to Somerset House to view Blumenfeld Studio: New York, 1941-1960, exhibit the portraits and photographs of fashion photographer Erwin Blumenfeld. Blumenfeld was a very sought after photographer and shot for fashion magazines such as Harpers Bazaar and Vogue. He was known for the playful and imaginative photographs he produced. The exhibition features colour originals of Blumenfeld's work including covers for Vogue he had produced. I really enjoyed the exhibition and found the methods he used to add effects to his images really interesting. Some of his images looked like they had been taken underwater but in actual fact had been shot through frosted glass which gave a really strange effect to the photo. Obviously in those days there was no photoshop so it's really imaginative of him to think of ways to manipulate his photos. A lot of his photographs also had an element of repetition to them which i liked. I think Blumenfeld's work was really ahead of it's time in terms of how he would manipulate or customise his images, some of them i would definitely experiment with such as the photographs distorted behind glass. The exhibition is free and definitely worth a trip to this Summer as it continues until 1 September.

Alexandra Shulman at Rave!

Today editor of British Vogue Alexandra Shulman arrived at Rave to tell about her experience as editor for the past 21 years!   
Although many countries over the world publish their own Vogue, I feel our edition is such a British treasure and something to collect and keep for years to come.
Alexandra talked about her background of journalism and how she originally wanted to work in the music business, and have a rock star boyfriend. When the couple of jobs in music didn't work out she began working as a receptionist for a fashion company.. which lead her to a very successful career in fashion. Alexandra was so interesting and inspiring, and I suppose i kind of had a preconception of her as the editor of a very successful fashion magazine (maybe I've watched The Devil wears Prada too much!?)

She talked about the process of choosing covers for the magazine, and how long in advance they create the issues. She also spoke a bit about her favourite issues which included the millennium issue which was covered in a silver reflective material, so the readers saw themselves on the cover and the August 1997 Vogue cover in memory of Princess Diana,with an image of her in a red dress shot by Patrick Demarchelier. Alexandra was very intriguing and allowed us to ask her anything we liked and even asked us some questions, including who preferred reading a paper copy of Vogue and who preferred reading it online. Almost everyone said a paper copy, which was fantastic news for her to hear. I suppose it was also quite surprising as Rave is a digital college,but as I said earlier I feel people think of Vogue as a bit of a collectable. Alexandra was definitely my favourite speaker who has been to Ravensbourne and even gave people advice on how to get into the fashion industry and shared her experiences and I can't wait to see what she has lined up for the 100th anniversary in 2016!