Queen of street photography: Lisette Model's New York – in pictures

Revered for her unblinking social realism, the Austrian-born American photographer chronicled high society Manhattan – and everyday life

Main image: Holly Marcus, International Refugee Organization Auction, New York, 1948 Photograph: Lisette Model

  • Fashion show at Hotel Pierre, New York, circa 1940-46

    The Austrian-born photographer Lisette Model is credited with reinventing postwar documentary photography in the US with her shots of high society and everyday people. All photographs: Lisette Model. An exhibition of her work is at the Boca Raton Museum of Art, Florida, until 21 October
    Fashion Show, Hotel Pierre, New York, 1940-1946, by Lisette Model

  • Sammy’s, New York, circa 1940-44

    Model came to photography via music, studying piano and compositional theory in Vienna under Schoenberg
    Sammy’s, New York, 1940-1944, by Lisette Model

  • International Refugee Organization auction, New York, 1948

    She emigrated to Paris in the 1920s to pursue vocal studies, before giving up a career in music to focus on the visual arts
    International Refugee Organization Auction, New York, 1948, by Lisette Model

  • Reflections, New York, circa 1939-1945

    After studying painting with cubist painter André Lhote, Model turned her attention to photography, though she credited Schoenberg with being her greatest teacher and influence
    Reflections, New York, 1939-1945After studying painting with Cubist painter Andre Lhote, Model turned to photography, though she always credited Shoenberg with being her greatest teacher and influence.

  • Running Legs, Forty-Second Street, New York, circa 1940-41

    She immigrated to the US in 1938 with her husband, the painter Evsa Model, and worked as a professional photographer, publishing regularly in Harper’s Bazaar, Cue and PM Weekly
    Running Legs, Forty-second Street, New York, 1940-1941She immigrated to the US in 1938 with her husband, the proto-pop abstract painter Evsa Model, and worked as a professional photographer, publishing regularly in Harper’s Bazaar, Cue, and PM Weekly.

  • First Reflection, New York, circa 1939-40

    From 1951 until her death in 1983, Lisette Model taught at the New School for Social Research in New York
    First Reflection, New York, 1939-1940From 1951 until her death in 1983, Lisette Model taught at the New School for Social Research in New York. Among her students was Diane Arbus, who famoulsy gained from Model the enduring inspiration that, as she put it, “the more specific you are, the more general it’ll be.”

  • Opera, San Francisco, 1949

    Among her students were Peter Hujar and Diane Arbus. The latter ascribed to Model the advice: ‘The more specific you are, the more general it’ll be’
    Opera, San Francisco, 1949Among her students were Peter Hujar and Diane Arbus. The latter ascribed to Model the enduring piece of advice to go from the gut, and to go with what you know: “the more specific you are, the more general it’ll be.”

  • Running Legs, Forty-Second Street, New York, circa 1940-41

    Her pioneering street photography, made with a 35mm camera, primarily in Nice and New York’s Lower East Side is characteristically direct and forthright
    Running Legs, Forty-second Street, New York, 1940-1941Her pioneering street photography, made with with a 35-millimeter camera, primarily in Nice and New York’s Lower East Side is characteristically direct and forthright.

  • Bois de Boulogne, Paris, 1933-1938

    According to the International Center for Photography, Model redefined the concept of documentary photography in the US, shaping the direction of postwar photography
    Bois de Boulogne, Paris, 1933-1938According to the International Center for Photography, Model redefined the concept of documentary photography in America, shaping the direction of postwar photography.

  • Sammy’s, New York, circa 1940-44

    On awarding her an honorary doctorate in 1981, the New School praised Model for her ‘unique talent and sensitivity on an extended exploration of the glamour, grandeur and contradictions of America and its people’
    Sammy’s, New York, circa 1940-44On awarding her an honorary doctorate in 1981, the New School praised Model for her ‘unique talent and sensitivity on an extended exploration of the glamour, grandeur and contradictions of America and its people’

  • Holly Marcus, International Refugee Organization Auction, New York, 1948

    Model was a proponent of social realism, with an eye for the peculiarities of everyday urban life and the people she came across
    Holly Marcus, International Refugee Organization Auction, New York, 1948

  • Reflection, New York, circa 1939-45

    Along with an experimental bent that seemed to underscore her coming of age in the modernist cultural landscape of pre-war Europe.
    Reflection, New York, 1939-1945Model had an eye for the peculiarities of everyday urban life, along with an experimental bent that seems to underscore her coming of age in the modernist cultural landscape of pre-war Europe.

  • Man in Restaurant, Delancey Street, circa 1939-45

    When a 2011 exhibition at Bruce Silverstein Gallery paired Model’s photographs with the leading figures of the European expressionist movement, the New Yorker noted the eye-opening similarities. ‘Like the expressionists, Model relished macabre exaggeration, but she was not without sympathy for her subjects. She could be as brutal as Dix, but she could also be comic, affectionate, and enthralled’
    Man in Restaurant, Delancey Street, 1939-1945When a 2011 exhibition at Bruce Silverstein Gallery paired Model’s photographs with the leading figures of the European Expressionist movement, the New Yorker noted the eye-opening similarities. “Like the Expressionists, [Model] relished macabre exaggeration, but she was not without sympathy for her subjects. She could be as brutal as Dix, but she could also be comic, affectionate, and enthralled.”
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