Assia, rarely referred to by her full name Assia Granatouroff, born in Bogopol (today Pervomaïsk, Ukraine) on October 6, 1911 and died on May 17, 1982 in Paris 15eme, was in the interwar period the nude model many Parisian photographers, painters and sculptors. Assia "embodies the very essence of nude photography at the time".

Assia Granatouroff is the daughter of Échiel and Méchama Granatouroff. She has a brother, Hersch. She was three years old when her father, a democrat who refused the regime of Nicolas II, left for the United States, abandoning his family.