Long a friend of the talented and powerful, Lorant championed Sir Winston Churchill before and during World War II, and was a friend of the Kennedys and Marilyn Monroe. He gave advice to "Life" founder Henry Luce around the time of that magazine's startup in 1936, and he edited the works of many leading photographers while in Europe, including Felix Man, Kurt Hutton, Alfred Eisenstaedt, and Robert Capa. Lorant also edited the works of a notable British photojournalist for "Picture Post", Bert Hardy, though Hardy's early work for that magazine was not attributed to him, even in the purchase, apparently because the agency he worked for did not allow freelancing.