Lisette Model & Berenice Abbott

Lisette Model: Portraits of a City

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Fig. 18 Little Man, Lower East Side
Lisette Model was a key figure in the history of photography, both for her highly personal style and for passion of the "snap shot". Her portraits of the citizens of the lower East Side and those of people in restaurants and night clubs in NYC featured the passion in her work.  Her camera was a detective, finding the idiosyncrasies that the human eye often missed.  She focused on the chaotic, fast tempo of city life and was interested the people on the streets of New York City.   Model images were direct, powerful, and richly human. 

Model used unorthodox methods as she began to point her camera toward shop windows and the reflections in them. She would crouch on the sidewalk or sit on the curb to photograph peoples’ legs as they walked by her on the crowded streets. The images are lyrical and almost gentle when contrasted with the bite and rawness of her portraits. It is hard to believe all these images came from the same aesthetic influences.


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Fig. 19 Sailor & Girl, Sammys Bar
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Fig. 21 Two Singers at Sammy's on the Bowery
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Fig. 20 Window Reflections
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Fig. 22 Running Legs, 42nd Street

Model stood in contrast to her own work.  Model was petite and refined but her photos were large and aggressive. Her prints were grainy, the subject matter was often ugly, and the crude negatives were often motion blurred or out of focus. Model’s images were processed in a large format (16 x20”) emphasizing the grossness of her subjects and the aesthetics of the composition.

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Fig. 23 Coney Island Bather
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Fig. 24 Old Woman, Orchard Street

Reflections

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Fig. 7 Reflections
Models reflection compositions allowed her to include information from both sides of the street all at once, as the reflections showed activity both inside and outside of the windows. By aiming her camera directly at a window, she was able to seize multiple moments. Framing the images in this way was daring and inventive.

In the photo to the right, the sun is shining down the street towards the women passing. Lisette Model is looking into the window from the left side. I think she also has a low viewpoint because of the dark silhouettes. She is possibly sitting on the ground.  The main woman is on the “border” between light and shadow and that is why she is half lit.  The four black hats are people who are in the shade – looking at whatever is inside the window. They are in the shade, that is why they appear as dark silhouettes. And because they create a black area in the image it is easier to see the reflection of the passers-by. This could even be the only reason the reflection is visible.  Her focus is set on the light pole in the background. In all of her reflection photos she is leaving something left for the viewer to explore. 


Running Legs

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Fig. 25 Running Legs
Model’s series of photos where she lowered the camera angles to the level of the sidewalk to catch the blurry tangle of passing feet were a new perspective to see city life. The pictures had an oppressive, claustrophobic feeling, as if made by somebody who had lost her footing in a panic in the streets and was being trampled by the crowd. In contrast, some of the “Running Legs” photos were extremely sad and gave a sense of loneliness and isolation.  In the two images below, one could be described as a man running with a desire to be alone and the other of a man that is alone amongst the many trying to be found. 

The atmosphere of New York City was changing. The boom in industry and rise of corporations contributed to the ever moving life style of the "clock-punchers" of all trades rush from the trains and buses to their office building. "Running Legs, New York" produces a sensation of movement in the big city and draws attention to the rise of production, exhibited in the form of a rushing worker. 



Points of View

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Fig. 26 Banker, Wall street
In many of her pictures in the 1940s, Model would aim up at her subject matter at close range.  In the photo below, the banker walks under the statue of George Washington on Wall Street. The statue extends its hand in what looks like a gesture meant to keep someone on his knees from rising. A massive, grisly figure, in the foreground, so close that he is out of focus, has a shadow like a bandit's mask concealing his eyes. He bears down on Model as if about to run her over. She appears to be literally beneath his notice.


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Fig. 27 Untitled
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Fig. 28 New York Public Library Steps, Running Legs

Model fell in love with the city’s noisy, narrow streets, tall buildings, fast pace, and energy. Throughout the next ten years, she mainly photographed subjects she found on the streets of New York City.  Her powerful images of the city were meant to open the viewer’s eyes to reality and to get viewers to respond to her subjects emotionally.

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Fig. 29 World War II Rally, Lower East Side
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Fig. 30 Lower East Side

Model's "street photography," of New York City captured the grit and gumption of the people in the 1940s.  She found intensely empathetic connections with her disparate subjects. Through her reflection in shop window images, she was able to engage the viewer and get him thinking about the double meaning. The reflections were literal images of figures in the glass; perhaps each was pondering his or her own existence against a backdrop of blurred urban life.