Born 1925, Brooklyn, New York
Died 2008


Russel learned the basics of photography while working as a darkroom printer and later as a contract photographer (1944–45) for Pix Incorporated, a photography agency. She then joined the photographers' cooperative Scope Associates, selling her work to popular magazines, including Collier's, McCall's, and Woman's Home Companion (1946–47). In 1947 Russel joined the Photo League, where she studied with Sid Grossman. She exhibited her work in a three-person show and later in the group exhibition "This Is the Photo League" (1948–49). Russel had a successful career as a freelance photojournalist in Manhattan (1950–65) before moving to Mount Kisco, New York (1960). Her work appeared in four exhibitions at the Katonah Museum, New York (1965, 1970, 1975, 1983). The last of these featured one of her photographic series of Native Americans, which she undertook in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Her photographs have been published in the volumes Photographing Children (1971) and Nursing Home Organization and Operation (1979). Her work appeared in the exhibition "The Women of the Photo League" at Higher Pictures Gallery, New York (2009).