Lisette Model

"Lisette Model" is an unsurpassed introduction to one of the twentieth century's most significant photographers--a woman whose searing images and eloquent teachings deeply influenced her students Diane Arbus, Larry Fink and many others. To mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of Model's death in 1983, Aperture is reissuing this classic, highly collectible 1979 monograph--the first book ever published on Model--in the original oversized trim and with the original distinctive design by Marvin Israel, along with an updated chronology and bibliography. This timeless volume contains more than 50 of Model's greatest images, from the rich idlers on the Promenade des Anglais in the South of France to the sad, funny and often eccentric inhabitants of New York's most subterranean haunts. As Berenice Abbott said in her preface, "One of the first reactions when looking at Model's pictures is that they make you feel good. You recognize them as real because real people express a bit of the universal humanity in all of us."

Lisette Model was born in Vienna and spent several years in Paris before moving to New York in 1938. Three years later she began a twelve-year association with Harper’s Bazaar as a freelance photographer. Starting in 1951, she also taught at the New School for Social Research and in private classes and workshops. Berenice Abbott first established herself in commercial portraiture in Paris and later in New York. She not only created masterful bodies of work on the changing face of New York, scientific phenomena, Route 1, and Maine, but Abbott also invented photographic equipment, pioneered the teaching of photographic techniques, and was the first and most committed champion of the work of turn-of-the-century French photographer Eugène Atget. Berenice Abbott first established herself in commercial portraiture in Paris and later in New York. She not only created masterful bodies of work on the changing face of New York, scientific phenomena, Route 1, and Maine, but Abbott also invented photographic equipment, pioneered the teaching of photographic techniques, and was the first and most committed champion of the work of turn-of-the-century French photographer Eugène Atget.