In 1908 he was given a camera and started taking and developing photographs.[4] Blumenfeld considered himself a photographer from this point on, for example taking a self-portrait dressed as Pierrot when he was 14 years old.[1][2] However, he had no formal training in photography.[2][5]
Blumenfeld began his career working in Berlin as an apprentice dressmaker to Moses and Schlochauer in 1913. He was drafted into the German army during World War I as an ambulance driver.[6] He planned to desert the army, but his mother had him arrested.[6]
Moving to Amsterdam in 1918, he toiled in the ladies' lingerie departments of department stores. He opened a store specialising in ladies' handbags in Amsterdam in 1923, the "Fox Leather Company." It was situated at the Kalverstraat 116 in the center of the city.
After moving to new premises in Amsterdam in 1932, Blumenfeld discovered a fully equipped darkroom in the building, and he started to photograph some of his female customers (often nude).[1][6] He participated in his first exhibitions at Carl van Lier's gallery nearby, and in 1935 the French magazine Photographie published one of his first photographs for the first time.[1]
Meanwhile, the leather store went bankrupt in 1936.[1] Following a move to Paris on 26 January 1936, Blumenfeld was commissioned to take the portraits of artists including Georges Rouault and Henri Matisse, and he secured his first advertising work for Monsavon. Among other subjects during this period, he photographed Josephine Baker, Cecil Beaton, Leonor Fini, Valeska Gert, Yvette Guilbert, and François Mauriac.[7] Blumenfeld quickly captured the attention of photographer Cecil Beaton who helped him secure a contract with French Vogue in 1937.[1] His family went to Paris, and he briefly went to New York in 1939.[1][7]
After Blumenfeld returned to France, during World War II, Blumenfeld and his family spent time in Vézelay with Le Corbusier and Romain Rolland. He was incarcerated at Camp Vernet and other concentration camps. His daughter Lisette (who had just turned 18) was incarcerated at the Gurs internment camp. Luckily Blumenfeld was bunked next to the husband of the woman Lisette was bunked next to. Through postcards and letters the Blumenfeld family of five managed to reunite. In 1941 they obtained a visa and escaped to North Africa and then New York.[7]
Upon Blumenfeld's arrival in the U.S., Carmel Snow of Harper's Bazaar put him under contract.[5] After three years, he began freelance work for American Vogue. His first double page spread in Vogue on May 15, 1944 was a photograph shot in 1938 of his daughter Lisette's legs. Over the next fifteen years, Blumenfeld's work was featured on numerous Vogue covers and in a variety of publications including Flair, Life, and Look. During this period, he also worked as photographer for the Dayton's department store in Minneapolis and produced advertising campaigns for cosmetics clients such as Helena Rubinstein, Elizabeth Arden, and L'Oreal.
By 1950 he was reported to be the highest-paid photographer in the world.[2][5][8] Among his models were Carmen Dell'Orefice and Lisa Fonssagrives.[1] He photographed more covers for Vogue than any photographer before or since.
In the late 1950s, he also began to create motion pictures, hoping to use them commercially. Captured between 1958 and 1964, these were mainly pilots for beauty commercials, aimed at his key clients: Helena Rubenstein, Elizabeth Arden, and L'Oreal. His idea for advertising beauty products on film was described as "ahead of its time."[1] Toward the end of his life, he also began work on his autobiography (which was unpublished during his lifetime) and on his book My One Hundred Best Photos (which, despite his being a renowned fashion photographer, included only four of his fashion images).[2][5]