Emmy Andriesse, who lived from 1914 to 1953, is one of the most important women of the twentieth century in her field, best known for her unforgettable account of Amsterdam's Hunger Winter of 1944 to 1945, now emblematic of civilian suffering during the Second World War.

Born into a liberal Dutch Jewish family, she trained at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague under Gerrit Kiljan and Paul Schuitema, who pioneered the New Photography based on Bauhaus principles and encouraged students to experiment with its documentary role. Her rigorous yet sensitive approach enabled her to produce work of unusual poetic power, while her versatile fashion, documentary, portrait and landscape output reveals a curiosity about her fellow human beings and a sense of beauty in the world around her.