Photo Study – Erwin Blumenfeld – Lisa Fonssagrives

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A breath-taking 1939 black and white fashion photography classic shot. The model, Lisa Fonssagrives, balances very precariously on a horizontal girder high up the outside of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, with other buildings looking like toys far below. She holds an upright support with one hand and the hem of her very long billowing striped dress in the other so it spreads out like butterfly wings. It looks like the slightest breeze will sweep her off her beam. She stands like a ballet dancer on a tightrope. This was a period when fashion photography was moving out of the studios to wild, exotic and as in this case, dangerous locations. Blumenfeld, who was Jewish, escaped from a concentration camp and fled to New York to resume his career in 1941. Fonssagrives was a dancer and among the highest paid and recognizable models of her day – in effect a forerunner to modern day supermodels. She migrated to the US before the German occupation of France. The photo online Arthur Chappell