Hugo Erfurth; Franz Blei; Staatliche Landesbildstelle Hamburg; collection on the history of photography; silver gelatin paper; black and white positive process; retouched (stone processing); image size: height: 22.6 cm; width: 16.4 cm; signed: recto u. re. in lead: Hugo Erfurth; inscribed: verso and left: in blue ink: Hugo Erfurth; stamp: verso and right: handwritten in blue ink added: B218/4; label: light-colored cardboard verso top left: in typescript: No. B218/4; Hugo Erfurth; stamp: light-colored cardboard verso top left: inventory stamp of the State Picture Gallery Hamburg; handwritten in blue ink: B218/4; label: light-colored cardboard verso top left : in lead: Franz Blei; 1928; portrait photography; man; portrait; writer; poet; author; profile (side view); specific poses; gestures; facial expressions; seated figure; Franz Blei; At the beginning of the 20th century; Hugo Erfurth is one of the most famous professional photographers in Germany; along with Rudolph D黨rkoop and Nicola Perscheid. After completing an apprenticeship as a photographer; he opened his own studio in Dresden at the age of only 22. Soon Erfurth orientated himself towards the up-and-coming pictorialist photography; participated in numerous amateur photographic exhibitions from 1894 onwards and managed to make a name for himself both as an artistically ennobled amateur and successful professional photographer. Portraits are central to his work; which he began taking in 1906 in his new studio; a classicist palace; in a stylishly elegant ambience; appealing to the wealthy bourgeoisie. He also produced numerous portraits of famous personalities; including K鋞he Kollwitz; Otto Dix and Joachim Ringelnatz. While his studies around 1905 still show full-length figures depicted in an atmospheric way; from the 1920s onward the focus is on the face; which is photographed against a simple monochrome background. Here; his pictorial approach corresponds to the portrait of classical modernism; whereby th