Born in Berlin, Palfi was the daughter of German theater designer Victor Palfi, and as a young woman she appeared in at least one film in 1926. Professionally active in Germany before the war, Palfi married an American and immigrated to the US in 1940. Her career in the U.S. centered on socially conscious themes, for instance the cover of the first issue of Ebony in 1945 and continuing work for that magazine. Her 1952 book Suffer Little Children focused on the living condition of disadvantaged children across the U.S., including the young inmates of the New York Training School for Girls. Palfi was a contributing photographer to Edward Steichen's landmark Family of Man exhibition in 1955. From the mid-1960s to the 1970s, Palfi taught photography in Los Angeles. Institutions where worked included the California Institute of the Arts, the Woman's Building, UCLA Extension, and the Inner City Cultural Center. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1967 and a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in 1974. Her work is archived at the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Palfi was married to the German-American theatre, radio, and television director Martin Magner from 1954 until her death of breast cancer in 1978. undefined

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