Background
Suzanne Szasz was born on October 20, 1915, in Budapest, Hungary. She moved to the United States after World War II.
Suzanne Szasz was born on October 20, 1915, in Budapest, Hungary. She moved to the United States after World War II.
Szasz received a degree in foreign languages - including German, French and English - from Budapest University. She is self-taught in photography.
Suzanne moved to the United States after World War II, taking up photography with a borrowed camera in New York in 1947 while working as a counselor at a children's summer camp. After winning a cover competition of The Ladies' Home Journal, she became a freelance photographer, selling pictures to Life, Look, Parents, Good Housekeeping, McCall's and Family Circle. Her work has also been exhibited at galleries and was included in Edward Steichen's ''Family of Man'' show at the Museum of Modern Art.
Her work with children led to collaborations with child psychologists, among them Bruno Bettelheim and doctors at the Gesell Institute of Human Development in New Haven.She also made a photographic study of women who used the birth control pill in Puerto Rico in 1962.
Suzanne's books included ''Guide to Photographing Children''; ''Sisters, Brothers and Others'' with Elizabeth Taleporos; ''The Silent Language of Children''; ''Modern Wedding Photography''; ''Young Folks' New York'' with Susan E. Lyman, and ''We Are Six: The Story of a Family'' with Clara and Morey Appell. Her work was exhibited at the Neikrug Gallery, the New York Camera Club and the International Center of Photography. The Hungarian National Gallery in Budapest had a retrospective of her work in 1982.
Suzanne was a founding member of the American Society of Magazine Photographers. She also had a lifelong interest in music and was a founding member and president of the Pinewoods Folk Music Club, which later became the Folk Music Society of New York, and a board member of the Country Dance and Song Society.
Quotes from others about the person
She is one of the outstanding documentary photographers of our time.
Suzanne's first marriage, to Sandor Szasz, a diplomat, ended in divorce in 1947. Her second marriage, to Ray Shorr, also a photographer, lasted until his death in 1994.