Portrait of Lisa Larsen. (Photo by Lisa Larsen/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

Portrait of Lisa Larsen. (Photo by Lisa Larsen/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

A recipient of many awards, including Magazine Photographer of the Year, which she received just one year before she died of cancer, Lisa Larsen (c. 1925-1959) used her Leica to render sympathetic portraits notable for their warmth. She survived a rigorous trip to the Himalayas and was the first American photographer to enter Outer Mongolia after a government-enforced 10-year ban. Beyond these far-flung assignments, the German-born Larsen was known as the “glamour girl” of press photography for her way of endearing herself to people, particularly those in the news. The otherwise gruff Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev gifted her with a bouquet of peonies, and North Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh said, “If I were a young man, I’d be in love with you.”

Adapted from The Great LIFE Photographers

Girls of the Children's School of Modern Dancing, rehearsing on the beach. (Photo by Lisa Larsen/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

Girls of the Children’s School of Modern Dancing, rehearsing on the beach. (Photo by Lisa Larsen/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

Soviet athletes Boris Tokarev (L) and Vladimir Suharev (R) practicing for the Russian Olympics. (Photo by Lisa Larsen/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

Soviet athletes Boris Tokarev (L) and Vladimir Suharev (R) practicing for the Russian Olympics. (Photo by Lisa Larsen/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

Eleanor Roosevelt talking to another UN delegate near a mural by artist Fernand Leger, 1952. (Photo by Lisa Larsen/The LIFE Picture Collection via © Meredith Corporation)

Eleanor Roosevelt talking to another UN delegate near a mural by artist Fernand Leger, 1952.

Lisa Larsen/The LIFE Picture Collection via Shutterstock© Meredith Corporation

More Like This

Columnist Sidney Skolsky (L) catching a ride on Bob Hope's (R) bicycle on his way from his dressing room to the sound stage. (Photo by John Florea/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation) Photographer

John Florea

Watching a high ball during baseball game. (Photo by Mark Kauffman/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation) Photographer

Mark Kauffman

Prisoners at San Quentin weightlifting in prison yard during recreation period. (Photo by Charles Steinheimer/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation) Photographer

Charles Steinheimer

Giant sable antelopes roaming the Luanda game preserve. (Photo by Carlo Bavagnoli/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation) Photographer

Carlo Bavagnoli

Charlie Chaplin on the set of his film "Limelight," 1952. (Photo by W. Eugene Smith/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation) Photographer

W. Eugene Smith

Sidney Poitier in a scene from "Porgy and Bess," 1959. Photographer

Gjon Mili