Photographers

Lisette Model (1901–1983) was an Austrian-born American photographer celebrated for her uncompromising, emotionally charged street photography. Born Elise Amelie Felicie Stern in Vienna, she grew up in a cultured, multilingual household and studied music with composer Arnold Schoenberg, whom she later described as her greatest artistic influence. After her father’s death, she moved to Paris, where she pursued both music and visual art before discovering photography through her sister and fellow émigré photographers.

Model’s first major series, “Promenade des Anglais” (1934), produced in Nice, showcased her bold, satirical approach to photographing the affluent leisure class. These striking images were published in European journals and established her early reputation. In 1938, she and her husband, painter Evsa Model, emigrated to New York, where the city’s dynamism became her primary subject. Throughout the 1940s her work appeared in leading publications such as Harper’s Bazaar, PM’s Weekly, and US Camera, and she joined the Photo League while exhibiting in major shows, including MoMA’s landmark 1940 survey “Sixty Photographs.”

Model’s New York photographs—portraits of ordinary passersby, reflections in shop windows, and unguarded scenes of urban life—helped redefine American documentary photography. Known for her direct, visceral style, she photographed instinctively and without hesitation, seeking moments of psychological intensity and human truth. Her work influenced the direction of photographic modernism and resonated with the Surrealist interest in the uncanny details of the everyday.

Beginning in 1951, she taught at the New School for Social Research for more than thirty years. As one of the most influential photography educators of the postwar period, she mentored numerous students who became major figures, including Diane Arbus. Model’s photographs are held in major museum collections such as the National Gallery of Canada, the J. Paul Getty Museum, and the National Portrait Gallery. Her legacy endures through her groundbreaking street photography and her profound impact as a teacher.