42 Facts About Lisette Model

Lisette Model continued to photograph and taught at the New School for Social Research in New York from 1951 until her death in 1983 with many notable students, the most famous of whom was Diane Arbus.

Lisette Model was born Elise Amelie Felicie Stern in the family home in the 8th district of Vienna, Austria-Hungary.

Lisette Model had a brother, Salvator, who was older by one year.

Lisette Model had a bourgeois upbringing, was primarily educated by a series of private tutors, achieving fluency in Italian, German, and French.

Felicie and Olga moved on to Nice, but Lisette Model stayed in Paris, the new cultural hub after WWI, to continue studying music.

Lisette Model bought her first enlarger and camera when she went to Italy.

Lisette Model had little training or interest in photography initially; it was Olga who taught her the basics of photographic technique.

Lisette Model was most interested in the darkroom process, and wanted to become a darkroom technician.

Lisette Model used her sister as a subject to start her photography.

Lisette Model claimed that "I just picked up a camera without any kind of ambition to be good or bad", but her friends from Vienna and Paris would go on to say that she had high standards for herself and a strong desire to excel at whatever she did.

Lisette Model stated that the only lesson she ever got in photography, other than from her sister, was from Rogi Andre, who told her "Never photograph anything you are not passionately interested in", a quote she would rework later and become well-known for in her teaching career: "Shoot from the gut".

Lisette Model warned her about the need to survive during a time of high political tension, pushing her to earn a living by photographing.

The couple, especially Evsa, were known to be very social, frequenting cafes, and especially places with performers that Lisette Model liked to photograph.

Lisette Model claimed that she did not take any photographs in the first 18 months she lived in New York, but an envelope dated 1939 contained many negatives of Battery Park, Wall Street, Delancey Street, and the Lower East Side depicting ordinary American people.

Lisette Model quickly became a prominent photographer, and by 1941, she had published her work in Cue, PM's Weekly, and US Camera.

Lisette Model was captivated by the energy of New York City, which she expressed through her separate series Reflections and Running Legs.

Interested in American consumerism and a culture very different from her own, Lisette Model began photographing Reflections, a series that explored manufactured images, and products or consumers in window reflections.

Lisette Model was recognized for her radical deviation from traditional viewpoint, and preoccupation with notions of glamour and anti-glamour.

Lisette Model's vision was of great interest to the editors at Harper's Bazaar, but by the 1950s, her involvement decreased dramatically, and she only published two assignments: "A Note on Blindness" and "Pagan Rome".

Lisette Model eventually became a prominent member of the New York Photo League and studied with Sid Grossman.

Lisette Model refused to cooperate with the Bureau, leading to her name being placed on the National Security Watchlist.

Lisette Model embarked on a prolific teaching career in the latter half of her life, both institutionally and in private.

Lisette Model left for California to teach in part for economic reasons and due to her friendship with Ansel Adams, who extended an informal invitation to a teaching position.

Lisette Model did not produce much of her own work at that time, possibly because of her failure to receive the Guggenheim Fellowship the previous year.

In spring 1951, Lisette Model was invited to teach at the New School for Social Research in New York City, where her longtime friend Berenice Abbott was teaching photography.

Lisette Model's teaching notebooks make frequent references to using children's art as example to show that art was an exploration of the world, and not a replication of what was already in place.

Lisette Model strongly focused on challenging her students to strive for the subjective experience and the utmost creativity, sometimes inspiring students, but alienating others.

Lisette Model did not tolerate lukewarm effort, and was ruthlessly critical of students' work that lacked passion.

Lisette Model offered private workshops with Evsa from their apartment.

Lisette Model's best known pupil was Diane Arbus, who studied under her in 1957, and Arbus owed much of her early technique to Lisette Model.

Lisette Model continued to teach in New York after the passing of her husband Evsa in 1976, both at the New School and at the International Center of Photography.

In 1964, Lisette Model applied for the Guggenheim Fellowship, and in 1965 she was awarded the fellowship of $5,000 for a period of one year.

Lisette Model went to photograph in Italy, but due to ill health she returned to New York earlier than anticipated, and was diagnosed and successfully treated for uterine cancer.

The first book of Lisette Model's photographs was published in 1979 by Aperture and included a preface by Berenice Abbott.

Lisette Model hadn't stopped shooting photographs; she had simply stopped printing them.

Nevertheless, Lisette Model continued to shoot and teach until her death.

Lisette Model was especially inspired to photograph when away from home, such as her photographs of students in Berkeley in 1973, Lucerne in 1977, Venice in 1979, and so on.

Lisette Model even returned to Nice, France, for the first time in nearly thirty years.

Lisette Model's image is included in the iconic 1972 poster Some Living American Women Artists by Mary Beth Edelson.

Lisette Model's health continued to decline until his death later that same year.

The estate of Lisette Model is represented by Bruce Silverstein Gallery, New York, New York.

Lisette Model refused the release of interviews, and allegedly even sabotaged a manuscript about her by Phillip Lopate.