| Names: | Born: Elise Felice Amélie Seybert
Other: Elise Stern
|
| | Dates: | 1901, 10 November - 1983, 30 March | | Born: | Austria, Vienna | | Active: | US | | Gender: | Female |
American woman photographer born in Austria.Preparing biographies
Biography provided by Focal Press
Born to affluence in Austria, Model studied music and voice, had private tutors and learned photography as a practical skill (introduced to the medium by her sister, Olga). Moved to Paris (1922–1937); first significant photographs were of tourists at the French Riviera in Nice. Emigrated to New York (1937) where her camera work was encouraged by Brodovitch and Beaumont Newhall, garnering her commercial assignments as well as exhibition venues. She sought out the support of the Photo League and became an active member (investigated by the FBI in 1954 for leftist leanings). She is primarily known for her black and white candid street portraits, unsuspecting subjects captured in a revealing pose and attitude, sometimes in a slightly offset or askew frame. In America, her favorite subjects were people at Coney Island and the Lower East Side. Many images have a slightly "grotesque" aspect partly due to Model’s selection of bodies and physiognomy and partly to cropping and high-contrast lighting. Freelance assignments were published in Look, Harper’s Bazaar, PM Weekly, and Ladies Home Journal. Her considerable influence extended through the university as she taught photography at New School for Social Research, New York, from 1950 until her death. Prominent students included Robert Frank, Diane Arbus, and Larry Fink.
(Author: Ken White - Rochester Institute of Technology)
Michael Peres (Editor-in-Chief), 2007, Focal Encyclopedia of Photography, 4th edition, (Focal Press) [ISBN-10: 0240807405, ISBN-13: 978-0240807409]
(Used with permission)
Readings on, or by, individual photographers
Model, Lisette, 2007, Lisette Model, (New York: Aperture) [Preface by Berenice Abbott.] [Δ]
Thomas, A., 1990, Lisette Model, (Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada) [Δ]
Thomas, Ann, 1990, Lisette Model, (Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada) [Δ]
If you feel this list is missing a significant book or article please let me know - Alan - alan@luminous-lint.com | |
Family history
If you are related to this photographer and interested in tracking down your extended family we can place a note here for you to help. It is free and you would be amazed who gets in touch.
alan@luminous-lint.com |
|
 | Lisette Model: Portraits |
| |
All photographs by this photographer
The following books are useful starting points to obtain brief biographies but they are not substitutes for the monographs on individual photographers. |
If there is an analysis of a single photograph or a useful self portrait I will highlight it here. |
Photographic collections are a useful means of examining large numbers of photographs by a single photographer on-line.
|
| "Photography through the camera is an instrument of detection. We photograph not only what we know, but also what we don‘t know." |
|
