Lisette Model (November 10, 1901-March 30, 1983) was an Austrian-born American photographer. In 1933, she gave up music and recommitted herself to studying visual art, at first taking up painting as a student of Andre Lhote (whose other students included Henri Cartier-Bresson and George Hoyningen-Huene). She also took up photography, taking basic instruction in darkroom techniques from her younger sister Olga Seybert (herself a lifelong professional photographer), although Parisian portrait photographer Rogi Andre was the person Model credited with providing her primary instruction in camera techniques. Her signature style is close-up, unsentimental and unretouched expositions of vanity, insecurity and loneliness.
Model’s pictures are weird. She liked to focus on people’s emotions and expressions on their faces. There are two pictures impressing me so much. One is a man dressing like a woman. He had curling wands around his head, and he did manicure on his hands. He dressed like a woman, but his face could tell us he was a man. He looked so confused and looked like he was lost in his life. The other one is a boy in rompers, whose right hand was holding a grenade, standing on the street. He had empty eyes. At first sight, I thought he was staring at the camera. Actually he was not. I didn’t know where he was staring. He looked panic and insecure, and I could not figure out what he was thinking. Model made the people in her picture could tell story. Her works also reflect the people’s life at that time.
I like Model’s pictures. The negative space in her pictures make people standing out. Her pictures looked quiet, but I was like I could hear people talking in her pictures when I stare longer. Her works are not only pictures. They tell stories as well. It encourages me to take more meaningful pictures and focus on everything around me, because story can be told everywhere.
—Melody Lin
