Lotte Meitner-Graf

Lotte Meitner-Graf (1899-1973) was a noted Austrian black and white portrait photographer. She came to England with her family in 1937, opening her own studio at 23 Old Bond Street in London in 1953. ‘There can be few educated people who have not seen one of Lotte Meitner-Graf’s photographic portraits, either on a book jacket (for instance, Bertrand Russell’s autobiography, or Antony Hopkins’s Music all around me) or on a record sleeve or concert programme. Her portrait of Albert Schweitzer had wide circulation on a poster, urging young people toward voluntary service abroad. Her love of music made her take striking pictures of many musicians such as Marion Anderson, Klemperer and Menuhin, and her small, elegant figure – slightly stooped of late – with the finely drawn features and the silver hair was often seen at the Royal Festival Hall. She photographed many actors, like John Gielgud and Danny Kaye, and there were quite a few Nobel prize winners among the many scientists whose pictures she took: Lord Blackett, Sir Lawrence Bragg, Dorothy Hodgkin, Max Perutz, and others.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

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