Ata Kando (Budapest, 1913) is the daughter of Hungarian parents, writer Margit G. Beke and professor dr. Imre Görög. The acquisition of her present name is a complex story (Ata came from her first name Etelka, Kando is the name of her first Hungarian husband). She left for Paris in 1932 with her first husband, the painter Gyula Kando. After the war she was an assistant at the Magnum photo agency. Later she worked for Paris fashion houses and continued to do so after accompanying Dutch photographer Ed van der Elsken to the Netherlands, whom she married in 1954.