Ylla archive

Ylla was a photographer and photojournalist known for her work with animals and development of the genre of animal photography. Born Camilla Koffler in Vienna, Austria in 1911 to Romanian and Croatian Hungarian national parents, she traveled with her mother during World War I before going to a German boarding school in Budapest in 1919. In 1926 she rejoined her mother in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, where she studied sculpture and art. In 1931 Ylla moved to Paris to study art at the Académie Colarossi and worked as an assistant to photographer Ergy Landau. In the 1930s Ylla began taking photographs of animals, which were successfully exhibited, leading her to open a studio specializing in animal portraiture. In 1937 Ylla published her first books, which were small collections of cat and dog photographs titled Yllas Dog Fancies, Chats par Ylla, and Chiens par Ylla. She also collaborated with evolutionary biologist Julian Huxley on his book, Animal Language, in 1937.

In 1940-1941 she obtained a visa to immigrate to the US with the assistance of the Museum of Modern Art; she opened a studio in New York and continued to photograph animals, publishing books containing her photographs. In 1952 she traveled to Africa and spent six months photographing in Kenya and Uganda for a book titled Animals in Africa, moving away from her previous practice of photographing animals in zoos and in her studio in order to photograph them in their natural habitat.

In 1954 Ylla traveled to India for seven months, where she attended the Dasara festival in 1954 at the invitation of the Maharaja of Mysore; she was later invited to attend the annual festival in Bharatpur in 1955 by the Maharaja of Bharatpur. It was here she fell from a jeep while photographing a bullock cart race on March 28, 1955; she died of her injuries two days later.

Two books were published based on her photographs from India: Animals in India and The Little Elephant. Another seven books of her work were published posthumously by her photo agent Charles Rado, who continued to promote Ylla’s work until his own death in 1970.

Chronology

1911

Born Camilla Koffler in Vienna, Austria, to Rumanian- and Croatian-Hungarian parents.

1925

Rejoined her mother in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

1927

Studied art in Belgrade.

1931

Studied art in Paris for six months.

1933

Began study of sculpture in Paris; began work as an assistant to the photographer Ergy Landau in her Paris portrait studio.

1937

Published first books, Yllas Dog Fancies, Chats par Ylla, and Chiens par Ylla; collaborated on Julian Huxley’s Animal Language.

1940

Left France for the United States, after obtaining a visa with the help of the Museum of Modern Art.

1953

Made a 6,000-mile trip through Africa; with her mother, Ylla was a passenger in a small plane which crashed into the sea off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, July 8. Her mother and a second passenger died in the accident; Ylla and the pilot were rescued.

1954

Arrived in India, September 7.

1955

Injured while photographing a bullock cart race in Bharatpur, India, March 28. Ylla died a few days later, March 30.