Born 1908 in Berlin, Germany. Died 2000 in Paris, France.

Gisèle Freund is one of the outstanding portrait photographers of the 20th century, known for her perceptive photo reportages and portraits of personalities from the art world and political circles of her time. After studying sociology in Frankfurt, Freund went to Paris in 1931 for her doctoral thesis and later decided not to return to Germany. In 1935, she made her debut as a photojournalist with a report on the unemployed in England. Freund became famous primarily with (colour) portraits of artists and writers in Paris; those of James Joyce, André Malraux, Virginia Woolf became ever-lasting portraits. During the war, Freund lived in exile in Buenos Aires, and from 1947 until 1952 in Mexico City, from where she undertook extensive photographic expeditions throughout Latin America. In 1947, she became a member of the Magnum photo agency. In the early 1950s, she returned to Paris, where she continued her portrait work and retired in the 1960s. In 1982, she was elected to the French Legion of Honour.

Gisèle Freund’s works are represented in international collections including the Fotostiftung Schweiz; Sammlung Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, USA.