Marion Palfi

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Marion Hermine Serita Palfi (born October 21, 1907 in Berlin ; † November 4, 1978 in Los Angeles , United States ) was a German-American photographer and actress .

Live and act

The daughter of long-time theater director Viktor Palfi (Kurfürsten-Oper Berlin) and older sister of the film editor Victor Palfi (1910–1985) ( Uncle Toms Hütte ) tried their first steps in acting (e.g. Berlin's theater on Kurfürstendamm ). and was also cast in a film in 1926 ( Wolfgang Neff's " How do I stay young and beautiful "). Nevertheless, Marion Palfi soon became more interested in photography and opened her own portrait studio in Berlin in 1934.

Soon afterwards, the artist felt compelled to leave Adolf Hitler's Germany for racial reasons and fled as Marion Weiss (husband: Benjamin Weiss) via Amsterdam and Antwerp to the USA, where she arrived in New York City in 1940 . Marion Palfi continued her profession as a photographer there, but focused on social issues. “The focus of her photographic activity was above all on racial discrimination and the neglect of socially disadvantaged children.” Much of her work was published in the magazine Ebony , in 1952 she brought out the photo book “Suffer Little Children”, which deals with the life situation of disadvantaged children dealt with the USA.

Since the 1960s, Palfi has also campaigned for American civil rights with her photographs and documented the lives of the indigenous people of the country, the Indians , with her work . Until the last years of her life, she also taught photography in her adopted home Los Angeles (including at UCLA ). Some of her work has been exhibited in central New York rooms, including the Museum of Modern Art and the New York Public Library .

Marion Palfi, who has received various awards, was married to the theater, radio and television director Martin Magner (1900–2002) of German descent from 1954 until her death from cancer in 1978 .

Web links

literature

  • Kay Less : "In life, more is taken from you than given ...". Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945. A general overview. ACABUS Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8 , p. 599.

Individual proof

  1. ↑ Kay Less : "In life, more is taken from you than given ...". Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945. A general overview. ACABUS Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8 , p. 599.
personal data
SURNAME Palfi, Marion
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Palfi, Marion Hermine Serita (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American photographer and actress
DATE OF BIRTH October 21, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH 4th November 1978
Place of death Los Angeles , United States