Ilse Bing

Ilse Bing (American, born Germany, 1899–1998) was a leading European photographer of the interwar period, she was among those who made Paris the center of modern photography in the 1930s. Moving in a milieu that included the likes of Cartier-Bresson, Man Ray, and Brassaï, she came to be known as “Queen of the Leica” for her influential mastery of the hand-held camera that revolutionized the medium in the period. An important retrospective of her work exhibited at the New Orleans Museum of Art in 1985, and the International Center of Photography, New York, in 1986; a survey was also held at the Musée Carnavalet, Paris, in 1988. Her work can be found in many major public collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum; Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Museum of Modern Art; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; and the Art Institute of Chicago.