Background
Simon was born in Charleston, South Carolina. When she was 8 years old, her father Herman, a dry cargo wholesaler, moved his family to Colorado.
Simon was born in Charleston, South Carolina. When she was 8 years old, her father Herman, a dry cargo wholesaler, moved his family to Colorado.
In 1928, she finished her only film, Hands: The Life and Love of a Gentle Sex, which is an avant-garde feminist film with imagery drawn from Europe and North America. Simon developed her talent for musical composition at East Denver High School, from which she graduated in 1896.
Simon married businessman Adolphe Simon in 1890, and they lived in Salt Lake City. She followed in the footsteps of photographer Clarence White and enrolled at the Clarence H. White School of Modern. During this period Simon started to develop her photographic skills.
White died in Mexico in 1925, leaving her to mourn his loss.
She finally decided to pursue advanced studies in film, and in 1926 went to Berlin where she became a film-making student in Technische Hochschule. Two years after enrolling, her film was distributed in both North America and Europe.
Simon"s only film, Hands, earned her fame in both North America and Europe. In 1932, after its release, she returned to the United States and established a photographic studio.
There, Simon focused on marketable projects such as portraits and advertising campaigns.
During the Second World War, Simon decided to share her knowledge of photography with others by volunteering to train the Signal Corps in photography. = Hands was the first and only film directed by Simon. Her son Louis sold her photographic equipment at the end of the war.
Her photographic prints were donated to libraries and galleries in the United States.
Simon"s negative plates were donated to American collections that included the New York Public Library and the Institute for the Federal Theatre Project at George Mason University.