Born in France, Fonssagrives first trained as a dancer, but after an injury he established himself as a photographer, selling photos to many European publications in the 1930s. He moved to New York and became one of the world's premiere fashion photographers of the 1940s and 1950s, taking pictures for Vogue, Town and Country and Harper's Bazaar magazines. Some of his most iconic images are studies of female nudes with patterns of light on their skin. Eventually he became disillusioned with the commercialization of his work, moved to Spain, and taught himself to sculpt. He later returned to the United States. "My objective was to try to understand what life was all about and to be free," he said. "And there's no place you can do that but in America. This is why I am here—this passion to be an individual. It is possible in America, despite all these miserable trends. But you have to buck the system at times." His photographic works are represented in Europe by Michael Hoppen Photography and in the United States by Bonni Benrubi and Duncan Miller Gallery.
Personal life
His father was the notable French sculptor, whose sculptures for World War I war memorials are found throughout France and whose smaller works are held by museums including the Centre Pompidou. Fonssagrives' parents divorced when he was twelve and for unknown reasons he chose to use his mother's last name. His brother, Jean Vigoureux, also became an artist, known for drawings and paintings of daily life in French Indochina and in Paris, as seen in the book Paris: Twenty-Eight Drawings by Jean Vigoureux. Fonssagrives was married in 1935 to his first wife Lisa, whom he met at a dance school in Paris. He gave up dancing after he was injured in a diving accident. As a gift for recuperation, Lisa gave Fernand a Rolleiflex camera. It was this that introduced him to photography, Fernand becoming a noted photographer and Lisa Fonssagrives a highly celebrated fashion model. They divorced in 1949. Fonssagrives's second marriage—to Diane Capron, a professional figure skater and teacher—also ended in divorce. The native Frenchman lived the last 30 years of his life in Little Rock, Arkansas. Fonssagrives was survived by a daughter from his first marriage, Mia Fonssagrives-Solow, a sculptor and jewelry designer who is married to real estate developer and art collectorSheldon Solow, and a son from his second marriage, Marc Fonssagrives.
