H.A von Behr began his career as a research metallurgist, but photography drew his interest from childhood on, and in 1931 he started his own studio in New York City. A few years later he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain and was awarded the Diplome D’Honeur L’Association Belge De Photographie et De Cinematographie. His pictorial photographs have been awarded prizes in London, Paris, Brussels, Copenhagen, Boston, Chicago, and New York. He has been an instructor of Photography at New York University, introducing Photo-Journalism there and he has written and illustrated many magazine articles. A number of famous men and women have had portraits done by Mr. von Behr, including Eleanor Roosevelt, Gloria Vanderbilt, Mrs. Charles Dana Gibson, Lee Remick, Claudio Arau, Sir William Elliott, Count Felix von Luckner and the Eisenhower grandchildren. Retired from his studio and residing in Manhattan, he and his wife, Ruth, are nature lovers and try to retreat to their woodland farm in Columbia County, New York as much as possible. It is there that he is inspired to do much of his writing.
