Palfi, Marion (1907–1978)

German-born photographer who specialized in portraits and social documentary. Name variations: Marion Magner. Born in Berlin, Germany, on October 21, 1907; died in Los Angeles, California, in November 1978; daughter of Victor Palfi (a theater producer); married Erich Abraham, in mid-1930s (divorced); married Benjamin Weiss, in 1940 (divorced 1944); married Martin Magner (a Danish-born producer-director), in 1955.

Born in 1907 in Berlin, Germany, to Hungarian parents, photographer Marion Palfi was the daughter of Victor Palfi, a theater producer of note. She acted in several German films before taking up the study of photography in 1932. From 1934 to 1936, she operated her own portrait studio in Berlin, during which time she also freelanced for industry and magazines. In 1936, she moved her operation to Amsterdam, a change of locale that may have been prompted by the failure of her marriage to Erich Abraham.

Palfi's second marriage was to American Benjamin Weiss, with whom she came to New York in 1940. Following a divorce from Weiss in 1944, she received a Rosenwald Fellowship which she used to travel around the United States photographing examples of racial discrimination. This led to a photo-essay, "There Is No More Time," which documented segregation in the South. During the 1950s, Palfi produced a book on child neglect and juvenile delinquency, Suffer Little Children, and also documented conditions among the elderly. She married her third husband, Martin Magner, a Danish-born producer-director, in 1955.

During the 1940s and 1950s, Palfi's work was represented in a number of major museum exhibitions, including Edward Steichen's Family of Man, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1955. Palfi was also a member of the Photo League, but resigned in 1949, fearing that she might lose her U.S. citizenship because of the group's political orientation.