Herman Landshoff (1905-1986) was born in München, Germany and died in New York, USA. He was the son of the renowned musicologist Ludwig Landshoff, and was born in a Jewish home. He studied to be a typographer and book illustrator. He worked at first as a cartoonist and in 1930 started working as a photographer, where he found quick success. Landshoff emigrated to Paris in July 1933 after Hitler came to power. In 1935, he received his first commissions as a fashion photographer for the French fashion magazine Vogue. With the outbreak of World War II, he enlisted voluntarily in the French Foreign Legion in order to escape internment, but also to fight against the German regime. After the danger for Jews became ever greater in France following the Franco-German armistice, in 1941 Landshoff emigrated to the United States. Soon he was able once again to pursue his work as a fashion photographer and to work for major fashion magazines in New York. He also made portraits of many European artists in exile in New York, thereby documenting the art scene of the time. Landshoff’s photo series on the architecture and society of New York show another artistic focus of the passionate photographer.