Ingeborg de Beausacq - New York

New York

In New York, Ingeborg managed to find a large apartment on 470 Park Avenue which became her studio. Every morning she read the New York Times and once saw a section about cameras. She called the indicated phone number and asked for advice. She wanted to become a fashion photographer. The man at the end of the line gave her the idea to make test shots of new models who wanted to make a career at agencies such as Eileen Ford's. Her first editorial assignment was a double spread in Town and Country. An exhibition at the Camera Club got her to Mademoiselle and other magazines.

In 1954, Ingeborg bought a virgin lot at 418 East 71 Street and built a house with her studio, a garage, an apartment for herself and one on the third floor as a "taxpayer". The construction would take nine months and she decided to travel. She first went to French Guyana to write a story about the penitentiary and the remaining convicts. Her story was published in La Suisse Illustrée and Die Woche. She then traveled upstreams the Maroni River and visited the Boni tribe villages along the river. She spent a month in a village called Enfant Perdu (lost child), sharing the village life with the natives. Later she traveled in Brazil by bus, by air, and by walking.

Back in New York, Ingeborg showed a beautiful door she had bought from the Bonis to René d'Harnoncourt, the founder of the Museum of Primitive Art. He bought it for the museum. Other art objects that she brought back from the Bonis were sold by the museum shop of the Brooklyn Museum or given to other museums. This gave her the idea of a new activity: collect primitive art objects. The owner of a New York art gallery, Julius Carlebach, suggested that she should go to New Guinea and offered to help her financially.