Trude Fleischmann was able to restart her career as a portrait photographer after her emigration to New York in 1939. Trained in photography at the Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt für Photographie und Reproduktionsverfahren and at the studio of the photographer Hermann Schiebert in Vienna, in 1920 she opened her own photo studio in Vienna. Her specialisation lay in photographing dance, music and intellectual celebrities and her images were published in several magazines. Between 1929 and 1931 the Austrian photographer Robert Hass (1898–1997), was a student at Trude Fleischmann’s studio and a lifelong friendship and working relationship developed following their exile. Robert Hass also emigrated in 1941 to New York, where he continued his career as a photographer and opened Ram Press, his own artistic graphic and printing studio at 48 West 25th Street. Photographs of Trude Fleischmann in 1935 in her studio in Vienna and in 1945 on the streets of New York after the end of World War II provide a visual record of their lifelong acquaintanceship.

On 3 September, 1938, Trude Fleischmann left Vienna for Paris, where she stayed with friends. She had taken with her only a few selected negatives, a camera and an album with photographs. She left her old Rolleiflex camera with Robert Hass in Vienna and around 100 negatives with a neighbour. The rest of her studio and photographic material has been lost. After a three-month stay in Paris, Trude Fleischmann emigrated on to London, where she arrived in December 1938. There she met up with her friend Robert Hass, who had also emigrated to London. Although life in London was safe, Trude Fleischmann required a work permit as well as a residence permit. With the help of her American friend Helen Post, whom she knew from her student days in Vienna, she prepared to emigrate to New York and, finally, at the end of March, 1939, she sailed from Southampton. During this time London was place for other émigré photographers as Ellen Auerbach, Grete Stern, Lotte Jacobi, Tim Gidal.

After living for a short time at the home of her friend Helen Post on Lexington Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, in 1940 Trude Fleischmann, together with her Viennese émigré colleague Frank Elmer, opened a photo studio at 127 West 56th Street. The 40m2 room was where the two also lived and was located in the lively theatre and music district. Close by were a number of other studios run by female émigré photographers such as Lotte and Ruth Jacobi, Ylla and Gerda Peterich. Trude Fleischmann kept this portrait studio until 1969. A few images from her time in New York can be found in photographic collections such as that at the Museum Wien. A series of private family portraits was donated to the museum in 2020. Trude Fleischmann took these portraits for free because she was a friend of the family of Fritz and Judith Jahnel, also émigrés from Vienna. From 1945 until 1959 Trude Fleischmann not only photographed Judith and Fritz Jahnel, but also their daughter Barbara, recording the child's growth over the years, from baby to teenager. The photo historian Anton Holzer published an article about it in the press (Holzer, 2020).

The first public presentation of Trude Fleischmann’s work took place in December 1939, when she took part in the Christmas exhibition at the Center for European Immigrants’ Art and Handicraft. The Christmas exhibition was designed to give newly-arrived European emigrant artists in New York, who, as refugees, did not have the right to set up their own businesses, an opportunity to show and sell their work. The Émigré Art Center, in the Empire State Building, was curated by the émigré architect Walter Sobotka, who arrived in New York in 1939. The artworks ranged from paintings, caricatures and sculptures to stage sets, ceramics, handicrafts and photographs. The émigré photographers Lotte Jacobi, Ruth Jacobi(-Roth), Robert Hass and probably Gerda Peterich were among the exhibitors (W.L. 1939, 14). Lotte and Ruth Jacobi had been in New York since 1935/36, whereas Trude Fleischmann, Robert Haas and Gerda Peterich had only recently arrived and the exhibition likely gave them one of their first opportunities in exile to show their work to the public.

While re-establishing herself as a studio photographer, Fleischmann also went out into the city to photograph émigré artists and intellectuals. Often, she already knew her subjects from her time in Vienna, as in the case of the actress Elisabeth Bergner. Bergner emigrated to the U.S. via London in 1940 and was part of the German emigrant ensemble “Players from Abroad”. Founded in 1942 by Gert von Gontards and Felix Gerstmann, the ensemble was for a long time the only German-language theatre in the United States. Furthermore, as Trude Fleischmann’s studio was next door to Carnegie Hall, she attended concerts there and photographed famous musicians and conductors such as the Italian émigré Arturo Toscanini. From this encounter a long friendship, documented in various photo series, developed which lasted until his death in 1957. She also visited him at his home and made portraits of him and his family. These portrait sessions made her reputation in exile. Besides Arturo Toscanini, Trude Fleischmann also held portrait sessions at the homes of other émigré artists and intellectuals, including for example Albert Einstein, who lived in Princeton and the architect Felix Augenfeld, as well as members of American high society like Eleanor Roosevelt. These portraits of prominent persons gave her a new and important reputation as a portrait photographer and restarted her professional career in exile in New York. Interestingly, Albert Einstein and Eleanor Roosevelt were also photographed by other émigré photographers. Portraits of Albert Einstein were made by Fred Stein, Lotte Jacobi, Ruth Jacobi, Hermann Landhoff, Lilly Joss Reich, Roman Vishniac, Robert Haas, Ernst Nash, Eric Schaal, Lucien Aigner, Philippe Halsmann and Fritz Goro (the husband of Carola Gregor). These portraits today form a kind of archive of exile and the émigré community in the U.S. Eleanor Roosevelt was also photographed by Ruth Jacobi, Werner Wolff and Fred Stein.

Besides portraiture, Trude Fleischmann also began photographing the city and its streets. This turn towards urban life was not new in her photographic work. Already in Europe during the 1930s, she had made a few photographs of Vienna (such as a summer swimming scene) and had taken her camera with her on her travels, for example to the Alps and to southern Italy. Besides street scenes in which people provided the life of the city, she was also interested in historic architecture, for example in Venice, and created city views of places like Bergamo.

Detailed views of city architecture can also be found in her photographs of New York. Only a few of these, like this image of the Brooklyn Bridge are today preserved in the Vienna Museum’s collection. Other images have turned up in auctions, like this image of the United Nations building, and this overview of Manhattan.

During the 1940s Trude Fleischmann’s portraits and images were printed in newspapers and magazines and presented at a few exhibitions.
An image from a trip to the Adriatic coast, dating from the early- or mid-1930s, before her emigration, was published in the U.S. Camera annual in 1940. The image Adriadic Wash Line shared a double page with another female émigré photographer, Ruth Staudinger Rozaffy. In November 1941 Fleischmann’s portraits were presented at the Annual Art for the Home Exhibition at the Fitchburg Art Center and in April 1942 an exhibition of her images was held at the New School for Social Research. The New School was an important network and contact hub for émigré scholars and artists pursuing a career in New York. During the 1940s photographic courses were conducted there by the émigré photographers Lisette Model, Charles Leirens, Josef Breitenbach, Tim Gidal, Alexey Brodovitch and Kurt Safranski. Others, such as Erika Stone, were students there and Rolf Tietgens showed his work at one of their exhibitions.  

Today, Trude Fleischmann’s photographs are conserved at the Museum Wien and also form part of the photographic collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Public Library.