Philippe Halsman (Russian: Филипп Халсман; Latvian: Filips Halsmans; 2 May 1906 – 25 June 1979 New York City) was an American portrait photographer born in Riga in the part of the Russian Empire which later became Latvia.
Born to a Jewish family of Morduch (Max) Halsman, a dentist, and Ita Grintuch, a grammar school principal, in Riga, Halsman studied electrical engineering in Dresden. In September 1928, 22 year old Halsman was falsely accused of his father's murder while they were on a hiking trip in the Austrian Tyrol, an area rife with antisemitism. He was sentenced to ten years hard labor/solitary confinement. His sister Liouba worked for his release, getting support from important European intellectuals including Freud, Einstein, Thomas Mann, Henri Hertz, and Paul Painlevé, who endorsed his innocence. He was pardoned and released in 1930. ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Halsman
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