Yva

1900–1942

Yva (German, 1900-1942) was born as Else Ernestine Neuländer. After photography training possibly at the Lette-Verein in Berlin, Yva opened her own studio in 1925 and briefly worked with Heinz Hajek-Halke in 1926. By 1930, Yva’s studio was one of the most renowned for fashion photography and celebrity portraits in Weimar-era Berlin, and her work was published in all major contemporary magazines and journals. Helmut Newton counted among her illustrious students. Her studio was expropriated in 1936; she was blacklisted and forced to work as an X-ray laboratory assistant. In 1942 she was deported to the concentration camp Majdanek and murdered there.