Biography
Lucien Hervé (László Elkán) was a Hungarian photographer. In Budapest, he joined the left-wing Munka Circle named lead by Lajos Kassák. He moved to Paris in 1929. . On his release, he took part in the French Resistance, becoming leader of the French Communist Party in Grenoble, which had become illegal. It was at this time that he began to paint, and some of his paintings were exhibited at the Paris Autumn Salon in 1942 and the Monte-Carlo Spring Exhibition in 1943. Immediately after the liberation of Paris, he travelled to the city and settled there. Recorded illegally under the name Lucien Hervé, his wartime photographs were published in Vu, Picture Post and Match magazines. It was also partly through these magazines that he met Robert Capa and André Kertész. In 1949, he met Le Corbusier, one of the most influential figures in 20th-century modern architecture, and became his "house photographer" between 1949 and 1965. In addition to Le Corbusier, his clients included Alvar Aalto, Marcel Breuer, Kenzo Tange, Richard Neutra, Oscar Niemeyer, Jean Prouvé, Bernard Zerfuss and Walter Gropius
