Maria EISNER LEHFELDT (ITA), was born in Milano in 1909 where she lived until the age of 6. At the first World War her family moved to Germany, and at the age of 20 in Berlin she started working for illustrated magazines. Having left Germany in 1933 due to Nazi pressure she came to Paris and started the ALLIANCE Agency selling photographs, where in 1936 she represented Robert Capa and David Seymour (Chim) working on the Spanish Civil war front. In June 1940 she was considered a German alien and sent to a refugee camp at Gurs in the Pyrenees. She fled Europe via Portugal and settled in the USA. In 1947 with her friends Capa and Seymour she helped to found MAGNUM PHOTOS and was Paris Bureau chief from 1948 to 1951 and joined by George Rodger and Henri Cartier-Bresson.
She married Dr Hans LEHFELDT and has a son Richard.