Florence Henri

Florence Henri was born in New York on 28 June 1893. She became an orphan at a young age and grew up with relatives in various countries. Her extensive education and inheritance enabled her to lead a cosmopolitan life between Rome, London and Berlin. In 1925 she began studying painting in Paris. Two years later, she attended the preliminary course at the Bauhaus in Dessau, and László Moholy-Nagy and Lucia Moholy inspired her to pursue photography. After returning to Paris, she created photographic portraits, self-portraits and still lifes in her studio there. She remained in close contact with numerous members of the Bauhaus as well as representatives of the Parisian avant-garde, such as Man Ray or Germaine Krull. Henri’s images quickly found their way into important photography exhibitions: in 1929 her work was presented at the show “Film und Foto” in Stuttgart and, in 1937, at Beaumont Newhall’s extensive survey of the history of photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In the 1930s she opened a studio in Paris for fashion, portrait and advertising photography, and she also taught students of her own there. After the Second World War, Henri turned her attention back to painting. It was not until the 1970s that her photographic work was rediscovered and enjoyed renewed acclaim. Florence Henri died outside of Paris on 24 July 1982.