Lilo Raymond’s photographs relentlessly pare away the inessential, presenting simple subjects—a neatly made bed, a vase of flowers by a window, the carved stone face of an angel from a funeral monument—enveloped in a rich veil of natural light.
Born in 1922, in Frankfurt, Germany, Raymond fled the Nazi regime when she was 16, settling in New York, where she became part of the bohemian Greenwich Village art scene, taking various jobs as an artist’s model, a waitress, and even a tennis pro. She came to find her poetic vision only later in life, seriously taking up photography only in her late 30s, when she studied with the legendary photographer and fine art printer David Vestal at the Photo League. She began exhibiting her work at various galleries in the ’70s, eventually moving to the Hudson Valley some 20 years ago.
Her work can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, among others.