Marion Palfi
American, b. Germany, 1907-1978
Born 1907, Berlin, Germany
Died 1978
Born to Hungarian parents, Palfi was a cabaret performer and film actress before apprenticing to a commercial portrait photographer in Berlin (1932–34). She worked as a freelance photographer for various publications and opened her own portrait studio, first in Berlin (1934) and later in Amsterdam (1936–40). In 1940 Palfi fled Europe, settling in New York. For a time she supported herself by working at Pavelle Laboratories, a photo-finishing company, while creating photographic essays in her spare time. Her first solo exhibition, "Great American Artists of Minority Groups," was held at Norlyst Gallery, New York (1945). The show attracted the attention of Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps, who selected her photographs to illustrate her first book, We Have Tomorrow (1945). A member of the Photo League, Palfi taught basic technique (1948) and participated in the exhibition "This Is the Photo League" (1948–49), as well as appearing in two group exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art that included other League members (1948, 1950). Palfi resigned from the League in 1949, fearful that her association with the organization would jeopardize her application for naturalization. In 1945 a photograph by Palfi was on the cover of the first issue of Ebony magazine.
A self-professed "social research photographer," Palfi was a dedicated proponent of social change throughout her career. In 1949 the New York Public Library mounted a traveling exhibition, "Children in America," based on a photographic essay by her that centered on the neglected rights of children. The photographs from this series were later collected in the book Suffer Little Children (1952). There Is No More Time, her 1949 photographic essay on a Southern town marked for its racial hostility, remains unpublished, while her photographic series of American Indians, Invisible in America, was exhibited at the University of Kansas Museum of Art in 1973. Her work appeared in the exhibition "The Women of the Photo League" at Higher Pictures Gallery, New York (2009).
Died 1978
Born to Hungarian parents, Palfi was a cabaret performer and film actress before apprenticing to a commercial portrait photographer in Berlin (1932–34). She worked as a freelance photographer for various publications and opened her own portrait studio, first in Berlin (1934) and later in Amsterdam (1936–40). In 1940 Palfi fled Europe, settling in New York. For a time she supported herself by working at Pavelle Laboratories, a photo-finishing company, while creating photographic essays in her spare time. Her first solo exhibition, "Great American Artists of Minority Groups," was held at Norlyst Gallery, New York (1945). The show attracted the attention of Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps, who selected her photographs to illustrate her first book, We Have Tomorrow (1945). A member of the Photo League, Palfi taught basic technique (1948) and participated in the exhibition "This Is the Photo League" (1948–49), as well as appearing in two group exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art that included other League members (1948, 1950). Palfi resigned from the League in 1949, fearful that her association with the organization would jeopardize her application for naturalization. In 1945 a photograph by Palfi was on the cover of the first issue of Ebony magazine.
A self-professed "social research photographer," Palfi was a dedicated proponent of social change throughout her career. In 1949 the New York Public Library mounted a traveling exhibition, "Children in America," based on a photographic essay by her that centered on the neglected rights of children. The photographs from this series were later collected in the book Suffer Little Children (1952). There Is No More Time, her 1949 photographic essay on a Southern town marked for its racial hostility, remains unpublished, while her photographic series of American Indians, Invisible in America, was exhibited at the University of Kansas Museum of Art in 1973. Her work appeared in the exhibition "The Women of the Photo League" at Higher Pictures Gallery, New York (2009).
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