Irene Fay Photograph Collection

Irene Fay (1914-1986) was born in Poland (then part of Russia) and spent her formative years in Warsaw. For graduation, she was given a Rolleiflex camera which began her love-affair with photography that endured nearly half a century. While living in Switzerland she worked with Gotthard Schuh, Switzerland's pre-eminent photojournalist, as a darkroom assistant. Concurrently, she took up a year-long study with photographer Hans Finsler, who taught her the art of photographic chemistry. By the end of the Second World War, Fay was working in Zurich as an independent portrait photographer and there she remained, until 1948.

Fay's next move was to The United States where she met friends Andre Kertesz, Lisette Model, and Diane Arbus at the famed New York Camera Club. Becoming naturalized in 1954, she worked primarily as a freelance photographer. Beginning in 1973, Fay was represented first by Witkin Gallery, then Neikrug Gallery. The images she produced during her years in the U.S. proved to be her most famous. Appreciating the beauty in small moments, Irene Fay had a wonderful eye for capturing what we would think of as simple, everyday things and making them seem so much more than ordinary.