[1] Born in Coney Island,[2] she was the daughter of Lillian (Zimmerman), a homemaker, and Max Gottfried, who ran a hardware store with his own father, above which the family lived.

[2] She worked as a photographer for an advertising agency before freelancing for publications such as The New York Times Magazine, Fortune, Life, the Village Voice,[6] and The Independent (London).

[7] In her later years, she published five books of her work: The Eternal Light (1999), Midnight (2003), Sometimes Overwhelming (2008), Bacalaitos and Fireworks (2011),[8] and Mommie: Three Generations of Women (2015).

[1][7] In 1991 while on assignment Gottfried photographed the Eternal Light Community Singers, eventually singing gospel with them on the Lower East Side.

[4] Gottfried died on August 8, 2017, from complications of breast cancer at her home in Manhattan at the age of 66 surrounded by friends and family.