20 most expressive children's photos of the legendary Esther Babli

Esther Babli is an American photographer, the author of talented shots that captured ordinary people in their daily lives. In addition, Esther is internationally known for her lively and heartfelt photographs of children. For many years working in the field of photojournalism, Esther has created more than one thousand children's pictures, forever catching in the frame of children's vivacity and spontaneity.

On February 16, 1921, in a Jewish family of emigrants from Esther Babli was born in Russia, a talented photographer known for her candid and emotional pictures from everyday life. Having fallen in love with the art of photography in her youth, thanks to the magazine "LIFE", which was just born, Esther firmly decided to become a professional photographer. Photojournalism especially attracted the girl, in high school she became the editor of a school magazine, imitating the corporate style of "LIFE" with her pictures.

After graduating from high school, Esther entered the Lyceum of Arts and Design in Minneapolis, from which she graduated in 1941, receiving a diploma of professional photographer. The first job search brought her to the legendary Vogue magazine, but Esther did not like working in the fashion world at all, because she was attracted by real photojournalism.

Dreaming of becoming an outstanding documentary photographer, Esther worked hard, creating photo series after photo series. After moving to Washington, the girl began working as a photo lab assistant in the Office of War Information (OWI). In such a short-lived role, she began her career in documentary photojournalism. At the same time, Esther photographed all her free time, thanks to which her work was soon noticed and appreciated. So she became a full-time photographer in the civil service and began filming life in the rear in difficult wartime.

In 1947, Esther Babli received a position as a photographer at the Federal Agency for Children (Federal child welfare agency). Working for this organization, she took several thousand photos, her work has graced the cover of the magazine "The Child" more than 30 times. And in 1948, her photo essay "Bus Story" (Bus Story) was declared the best photo series of the year.

This was followed by work for the women's magazine "Ladies' Home Journal", the position of freelance photographer of the legendary illustrated "Life", orders from various organizations from Pepsi-Cola and Panamerican to the UN Children's Fund. The fame of the talented photojournalist, the number of nominations and awards grew year after year.

Esther Babli lived at a time when most American women led an unassuming and quiet life of housewives, while she managed to succeed in such a difficult business as documentary photojournalism. Fulfilling orders for reports, Esther traveled a lot not only in the USA, but also around the world and became one of the first women photographers who were able to secure a decent existence, awards and public recognition, while remaining a "freelance artist."

Esther Babli continued to work almost until her death in 1998, when she died of cancer at the age of 77 in New York.