Fritz Henle

1909–1993

Fritz Henle (German, 1909–1993), born in Dortmund, studied photography under Hanna Seewald at the Bayerische Lehranstalt für Lichtbildwesen (Bavarian State Academy of Photography) in Munich in 1931. After graduation, he became photo-assistant to art historian Clarence Kennedy in Florence, Italy. Working as advertising photographer for a shipping company between 1934 and 1936, Henle traveled extensively throughout the Mediterranean, India, China, Japan and Korea. In 1936, Henle, whose family was considered Jewish by the National Socialists, emigrated to the US. Settling in New York City, Henle soon began working for magazines such as Fortune and Time Life. In1938 he worked in Paris and although the resulting photographs were originally rejected, they were rediscovered by the New York Times, and were published six years later. Alexei Brodovitch, the legendary art director at Harper's Bazaar, also published a monograph of Henle’s Paris work. In spite of the wide-ranging nature of his oeuvre, which includes society portraits, fashion photography, as well as industrial studies, Henle considered himself, above all, to be a travel photographer. A keen observer, he captured the discreet moments of everyday life, including genre images of people and street scenes.