Biography of Lea Lee

Lea Lee grew up in an extraordinarily artistic, cultural environment in Paris and in New York, living with her grandparents who were close friends with many notable art world luminaries. These included Elaine and Willem de Kooning, Man Ray and his wife Juliet Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, John cage, Pierre Chareau, Paul Nelson, Robert Motherwell, Le Corbusier, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Peggy Guggenheim, and the famous actors, Buster Keaton, and Eric Von Stroheim and others …

Her family was especially close to Alexander Calder and his family, with whom, as a child, Lea Lee would spend the holidays together.

The young Lea Lee often dreamt of UFOs and constellations, while admiring the wonderful sculptures of Alexander Calder, even on occasion watching the great artist work on his Mobiles, Stabiles and gouache. All of this unique exposure fortified her imagination, and in 1979 Lea Lee began to take photographs, to draw and make collages.

One could say that Lea Lee lived a fairytale life of sorts during her youth, while developing her own artistic perspective. In the 1980s she would go on to work as a style photographer for prominent international magazines such as Figaro, VSD, Actuel, and Der Spiegel. These would typically send her on assignment between Paris and New York, utilizing various pseudonyms to keep her freelance work separate from her art photography.

In 1985, she met in New York , Don Snyder, who became her mentor in the art of photographing ; Don Snyder was a master artist, who printed for Diane Arbus, and Eugene Smith, and later on , during her travels , Lea Lee met many important photographers in Paris , and she became friend with them.

Drawing on her professional contacts in the art world, Lea Lee became an art advisor during the decade of 1990s, traveling across Europe and America, attending art fairs and major auctions, all the while taking pictures, and still being a freelance photographer, since then.

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