Zaida Ben-Yusuf

Zaida Ben-Yusuf
Self portrait, 1901
Born	Esther Zeghdda Ben Youseph Nathan (1869-11-21)21 November 1869 London, England
Died	27 September 1933(1933-09-27) (aged 63) Brooklyn, New York
Known for	Photography

Zaida Ben-Yusuf (21 November 1869 – 27 September 1933) was a New York-based portrait photographer noted for her artistic portraits of wealthy, fashionable, and famous Americans of the turn of the 19th–20th century. She was born in London to a German mother and an Algerian father, but became a naturalised American citizen later in life. In 1901 the Ladies Home Journal featured her in a group of six photographers that it dubbed, "The Foremost Women Photographers in America." In 2008, the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery mounted an exhibition dedicated solely to Ben-Yusuf's work, re-establishing her as a key figure in the early development of fine art photography.

Ben-Yusuf was born Esther Zeghdda Ben Youseph Nathan in London, England, on 21 November 1869, the eldest daughter of a German-born mother, Anna Kind Ben-Youseph Nathan, from Berlin; and an Algerian father, Mustapha Moussa Ben Youseph Nathan. By 1881, Anna Ben-Yusuf, now separated from her husband, and her four daughters (Zaida (aged 11), Heidi (8), Leila (4) and Pearl (3)), were living in Ramsgate, where Anna worked as a governess. At some stage in the late 1880s, Anna Ben-Yusuf emigrated to the United States, where by 1891, she had established a milliner's shop on Washington Street in Boston.

In 1895, Ben-Yusuf followed in her mother's footsteps and emigrated to the United States, where she worked as a milliner at 251 Fifth Avenue, New York. She continued this for some time after becoming a photographer, writing occasional articles for Harpers Bazaar and the Ladies Home Journal on millinery.

In 1896, Ben-Yusuf began to be known as a photographer. In April 1896, two of her pictures were reproduced in The Cosmopolitan Magazine, and another study was exhibited in London as part of an exhibition put on by The Linked Ring. She travelled to Europe later that year, where she met with George Davison, one of the co-founders of The Linked Ring, who encouraged her to continue her photography. She exhibited at their annual exhibitions until 1902.