Sonja Bullaty; Photographer Noted for Painterly Works

Sonja Bullaty, 76, a photographer noted for her expressive composition and use of light and color who created a large body of work over a five-decade career. Born in Prague, Bullaty received her first camera at 14 from her father. Deported to Poland by the occupying Nazis when she was 18, she spent four years in captivity, first in the Lodz ghetto and later at the Auschwitz and Gross-Rosen concentration camps. She escaped a death march near Dresden near the end of the war and, after the liberation of Europe, returned to Prague. She became associated with the well-known Czech photographer Josef Sudek, becoming his assistant. After coming to America in 1947, she met photographer Angelo Lomeo, whom she married. Together they produced six books of photographs. Their work appeared in Life, Time and Audubon magazines and was exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Critics often noted the painterly aspects of their work, likening it to that of Edward Hopper and Rene Magritte. On Oct. 5 of cancer at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.