Who Was James Abbe?

James Abbe was a photojournalist born in Maine who lived between 1883 and 1973. He acquired his first camera aged 15 with which he photographed the battleship Maine which was awaiting her departure to Cube. The ship was blown up at the start of the Spanish-American war and this made his photographs extremely desirable.

James worked as photojournalist in Washington DC until he moved to New York and opened a photo studio in the Hotel des Artistes. He photographed society figures and famous people with his work appearing in several publications including the New York Times. His reputation grew globally and so James moved to Hollywood where he began work on movie stills for director D. W. Griffith, before expanding to Europe to in 1923 to work with Henry King in Paris.

James Abbe returned his focus to photojournalism, and became the first foreign correspondent to interview and photograph Stalin in 1932. He photographed Adolf Hitler in the following year. He continued to work as a radio commentator and television columnist up until his retirement