On the outbreak of World War I, the de Meyers, who in 1916 took the new names of Mahrah and Gayne, on the advice of an astrologer, moved to New York City, where he became a photographer for Vogue from 1913–21, and for Vanity Fair. In 1922 de Meyer accepted an offer to become the Harper's Bazaar chief photographer in Paris, spending the next 16 years there.
On the eve of World War II in 1938, de Meyer returned to the United States.[citation needed]
He died in Los Angeles in 1946, his death being registered as 'Gayne Adolphus Demeyer, writer (retired)'.[17] Today, few of his prints survive, most having been destroyed during World War II.