Background
Elli Marcus was born in 1899, in Berlin, Germany.
Elli Marcus was born in 1899, in Berlin, Germany.
Elli worked as a theatrical photographer in Berlin, Germany until forced to flee the Nazis around 1931-1933. She opened a studio in Paris, France, but then had to escape Nazi occupation again and went to the United States in March 1941. Here she continued her photography until 1957, when she became a full-time graphologist.
Elli's work appeared in numerous German periodicals in the 1920s and 1930s, such as Welt Spiegel, Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung, Die Dame and Elegante Welt. In the United States she was a frequently published in United States Camera during the 1940s and 1950s.
Elli was primarily a theatrical photographer, claiming to be the first female photographer to work on the stage. She captured such notable theatrical personages as Max Reinhardt, Marlene Dietrich and Bertolt Brecht. She also did some fashion and advertising work, always using silver prints. Her later interest in graphology led her to experiment with enlarged photographs of the handwriting of her subjects, combining them in her portraits through photomontage.