In 1926 he settled in Paris and became a photographer and correspondent for numerous German and international newspapers. He reported for the Berliner Tageblatt, the Vossische Zeitung, Cicerone, Kunst, and especially Weltkunst. He became known for his reviews for world art and reports on the current Paris art scene. In addition to exhibition reports and essayistic works he wrote knowledgeable monographs on artists including de Chirico, Matisse, Pissarro, and Cézanne. In autumn 1933 he was romantically involved with, first wife of Max Ernst, who had fled to Paris. From 1933-39, he set out as a photographer and correspondent traveling widely and reported for English, American, French and Swiss newspapers mainly on travel and politics in Mediterranean countries. Shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War Neugass was interned in the camp Fort Carré in Antibes. In November 1939 he was transferred to Les Milles near Aix-en-Provence. There he met amongst others Max Ernst, Walter Hasenclever and Lion Feuchtwanger. In 1939, under the pseudonym "François Neuville" he wrote the novelDas Geheimnis um die Venus, originally planned as a movie starring the actor Raimu, which appeared in two separate Swiss newspapers. In the spring of that year he joined the French army. As a journalist, he was accused by the Vichy regime in 1941 of distributing enemy propaganda and sentenced. In order to forestall the impending expulsion to Germany, he emigrated in late 1941 via Casablanca and Cuba to the United States.
Life in the United States
From 1942 to 1947 Neugass worked in various bookstores and for the Red Cross. In 1944 he married librarian Lotte Labus who had earned her own Ph.D in Berlin, and he was granted American citizenship in 1947 and freelanced for several magazines, including articles illustrated with his own photographs ’Window Shopping With Your Camera’ for Popular Photography. and 'Portraiture with Match and Candle' for The American Annual of Photography In the 1950s he wrote for various European newspapersFrankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Handelsblatt, Aufbau, and Art News and was the American correspondent to the Swiss Camera magazine in which, in writing on 'The photographers of the United Nations' he expressed the opinion that “The aim of the United Nations is identical with that which lies closest to the hearts of photographers: to bring the nations closer together through mutual understanding,”
Neugass' late work as a journalist included critical evaluations of the buying policy of the museums and strategies of the art market. Due to failing health, in January 1979, Neugass turned down their offer to be American editor for the German magazine Kunst. He died in June. A memorial exhibit of Neugass' work was held on the 15th of October 1979 at Goethe House in New York City. His estate is kept in the University at Albany, New York and was compiled by Lotte Neugass prior to their deposit there in the M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections. There are approximately 4500 original photographs by Neugass in the collection.
Publications
Fritz Neugass Antike Kunst in Algerien, von Fritz Neugass, Note : Note : Sonderabzug aus die Antike. VIII. 1932.. pages 138-150.
Fritz Neugass Bucheinbände der pariser Nationalbibliothek.
Goethe et l'Italie extract from la Revue bleue, 19 mars 1932
Dossiers biographiques Boutillier du Retail. Documentation sur Stefan George. Paris : La Grande revue : Comoedia : Nouvelles littéraires, etc., 1927-1944
