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Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Fernand Fonssagrives, Photographer Of Fashion Models and Female Nudes..Fernand Fonssagrives, a photographer known for his elegant pictures of his first wife, the noted model Lisa Fonssagrives, and his later pictures of female nudes with patterns of light on their skin, died on April 23 in Little Rock, Ark. He was 93 and lived in Little Rock. Mr. Fonssagrives was also a popular fashion photographer in the 1940's and 50's, when he took pictures for Town and Country and Harper's Bazaar magazines. Late in life he was a sculptor. In 1990 the James Danziger Gallery in Manhattan mounted an exhibition, ''Photographers' Muses,'' in which Mr. Fonssagrives's photographs of his first wife, Lisa, were hung beside photographs by Harry Callahan of his wife, Eleanor, and Edward Weston of his longtime female companion, Charis Wilson. Mr. Fonssagrives was born on the outskirts of Paris and attended a Jesuit school in Paris. In 1928 he came to the United States with his family. He and Lisa married in 1935 and both became dancers, but he said he had to give that up after he was injured in a diving accident.They divorced, and in 1950 Lisa married the photographer Irving Penn; she inspired some of his best-known photographs. Mr. Fonssagrives's second marriage, to Diane, a professional skater, also ended in divorce. He is survived by a daughter from his first marriage, Mia Fonssagrives-Solow of Manhattan; a son from his second marriage, Mark, of Little Rock; three grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.