Lisette Model photograph loaned for Aperture exhibit
Haverford’s fine art photography collection includes a Lisette Model photograph “Sailor and Girl,” a silver gelatin print originally created in 1940 and signed by Model. It is tightly cropped, fills the frame and exhibits the radical, confrontational style for which her work is often known.
Before Lisette Model (1901-1983) became a photographer in the 1930s, she displayed strong talents in music and painting. By 1941, she already had an exhibition of her works at the Photo League in New York and was a staff photographer for Harper’s Bazaar. In 1950, she began to teach at the New School for Social Research in New York where she remained until her death. She was a friend to other photographers, such as Berenice Abbott, and taught such rising stars as Diane Arbus, Larry Fink and Rosalind Solomon. Examples of all these artists’ works are also in our collections.
Our limited edition Model print was issued by Aperture in 1979. Aperture, a non-profit organization with a mission of advancing fine photography, requested a loan of our Lisette Model print for its current exhibition “Lisette Model and her Successors.” We were pleased to have our print be a pivotal work in their show.