While Frankfurt-born Ilse Bing's 1931 Self-Portrait with Leica is an icon of modern photography, her exquisite black-and-white compositions, created mostly during her years in exile in Paris and New York, have not received nearly the attention they deserve. This first-ever monograph of the photographer (1899-1998) dubbed the "Queen of the Leica" is cause for celebration on two counts: Those with an interest in Bing's work now have an authoritative source to consult; and students of the form now have proof that Bing ranks alongside Brassaï, Man Ray, and Henri Cartier-Bresson in the pantheon of 20th-century avant-garde photography. This book, based largely on unpublished material from Bing's personal archive, combines biography with an in-depth study of her work in its historical context, creating a portrait of the artist as revealing as it is overdue.

Larisa Dryansky is a writer and curator based in Paris. She has produced books on the photographers Josef Breitenbach, Jacques Henri Lartigue, and Julia Margaret Cameron, and has organized photography exhibitions for art galleries and museums including the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Paris.

Edwynn Houk is the founder of the Edwynn Houk Gallery in New York, which specializes in masters of twentieth-century photography.