The Thoughtful Portraits of Russian Photographer Nina Leen

Photographer Nina Leen kept the date of her birth unknown, adamantly refusing to reveal or even discuss her age. This air of mystery was ongoing, and she lived a fairly nomadic existence, with travel playing a key part in her life. Born in Russia, the photographer grew up in various parts of Europe such as Italy and Switzerland, and she studied painting in Berlin before emigrating to the United States in 1939.

With her first camera, a Rolleiflex, she honed her photography skills and soon caught the attention of LIFE magazine. In April 1940, the magazine published Leen’s first photographs, which were of tortoises at the Bronx Zoo.

Female tortoise by Nina Leen (From the collection of LIFE Photo Collection)

Two tortoises fighting by Nina Leen (From the collection of LIFE Photo Collection)

Leen is often described as “one of the first women staff photographers at LIFE", but she was never officially on the staff of the magazine. Rather, after her first images were published, she became a contract photographer for them up until the magazine ceased publishing as a weekly in 1972.

Over the years Leen was behind over 50 magazine covers and contributed to numerous reports from around the world. One of the most famous stories regarding her career at LIFE, is the tale of her dog Lucky, which began in 1949.

Lucky by Nina Leen (From the collection of LIFE Photo Collection)

Leen adopted Lucky (above) after her colleague Leonard McCombe found him as a downtrodden, abandoned puppy in Texas. McCome brought him back to the LIFE offices in New York unable to leave the puppy there. Leen was a well-known animal lover, often preferring them to humans, and she quickly adopted the pup.

Nina subsequently brought Lucky with her everywhere, documenting the dog’s post-rescue adventures in follow-up articles, a book, and even a short film as the public were just as invested in him as Leen.

Many of her portraits had animal subjects at the forefront or she often photographed human subjects with various furry creatures. Leen wasn’t limited to photographing animals though and had a knack for capturing angst-riddled teenagers during the 40s and 50s, and was a prolific fashion photographer for LIFE, traveling to Paris numerous times.

Beatrice Lodge being fitted for an Oscar De La Renta dress by Nina Leen (From the collection of LIFE Photo Collection)

Group portraits were also something Leen excelled in and her two most famous group shots are still prominent today. The first featured four generations of an Ozark farming family, and the other is a now-legendary shot of “The Irascibles”, which pictured artists including Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Mark Rothko. These artists had come together to protest the Metropolitan Museum’s refusal to include Abstract Expressionist works in a major 1950 retrospective of American painting.

The Irascibles by Nina Leen (From the collection of LIFE Photo Collection)

Despite work from LIFE stopping in 1972, throughout the rest of the 70s Leen continued to flourish. She produced an average of two books a year and published 15 in her lifetime, including one about bats, who she nicknamed “flying kittens”.

Bats by Nina Leen (From the collection of LIFE Photo Collection)

Leen’s success stemmed from her passion for every assignment she worked on and her ability to find the real story and present the human (or animal) side. What set the photographer apart was also her skill of transforming a relatively pedestrian scene in a way that made it look like a scene from a film – full of intrigue and energy.

Leen died on January 1, 1995 at her home in New York City. A spokesperson for LIFE said that she was in her late 70s or early 80s, but we’ll never know for sure.

Check out more of Leen's photographs below or see the full collection here.

California Living by Nina Leen (From the collection of LIFE Photo Collection)

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