Press Release
Lisette Model (Vienna 1901 - New York 1983) was an Austrian-born American photographer. Her works are a combination of daring and instinct. With her images, uncompromising and yet loaded with humanity, she built up her own signature style within the Street Photography movement that developed in New York in the 1940s.
Model always photographed with “her guts”, but this steadfastness was pervaded with another recurring element: the presence of sound, whether harmonious or dissonant...
Music had uplifted and governed her entire life since her early childhood, all the way through her upbringing, Vienna, violin, piano, singing... In 1933, she went through such a profound spiritual crisis that... she lost her voice! During the next few years, she strove to keep music at a distance. However, despite all the dissonances in her life, music never remained silent.
Schönberg was both her teacher and her mentor. This composer and theoretician of genius had had a powerful impact on Lisette's perception of music and life ever since she was 17. Consciously or unconsciously, his teaching transcended the way she looked at the world around her. Few people have what it takes to link photography with the art of hearing as Model did.
Through about forty shots, RESONANCE opens up a theme in Lisette Model's work that has yet to be explored.
Keitelman Gallery, 2013