He went to his uncle in Paris as Ervin Preis. This uncle was known for many things, including the unselfish help he gave to emigrant Hungarians. Why should he not help his own nephew? The Uncle was called Lajos Tihanyi.
He studied at the Industrial Drawing School in Budapest. During the 1930’s he was intensely interested in painting, sculpture, but was also made great genre photos. What’s more, he wasn’t too bad at dancing either. He spent his Summers in Kalocsa, where he painted and photographed gypsies. In 1936, he had an exhibition in Budapest’s Műterem (Studio) Galéria, and the year after in a private gallery. The Museum of Fine Arts bought two of his graphics from this.
He lived in Paris from 1938. He participated in the French Resistance also. In 1953 his private exhibition was held in the Galerie St. Jacques, which was followed by another in Milan in 1962. In 1956 his volume of dual portraits appeared. Marton recorded on photograph how a well known artist makes a portrait of a well known personality. Among those appearing in these pictures were Louis Armstrong, Pablo Picasso, Roger Martin du Gard, Jean Cocteau, Brigitte Bardot and Kees van Dongen. The portraits also included well-known members of the Hungarian colony, such as György Bölöni and his wife Itóka, Andor Németh and Bertalan Pór. He received the Medaille de Resistance from the French state. His widow presented some of his photographs to the Hungarian state.
photographs, further details can be found on the website of the Hungarian Museum of Photography