She spent seven years working as a photojournalist in Africa, but is most remembered for changing the direction of dance photography from focusing on posed photographs to action shots.
During World War II, she worked for the WAAF in radar, and spent a period of internment on German-occupied Guernsey.
[3] Her use of dance action shots was innovative,[4][5] and she defended it in the introduction to her book.
[6] Working freelance for the same paper, Severn spent seven years in Africa, covering stories in the Belgian Congo and Ruanda-Urundi.
She collaborated with Hugh Tracey on African Dances of the Witwatersrand Gold Mines,[7] and wrote an account of her travels, Congo Pilgrim.