Female Impersonator, New York

Lisette Model

ca. 1945 · Gelatin silver print · Photographs

Lisette Model immigrated to New York via Paris in 1938 and almost immediately became an activist in the American photographic scene. She was a lauded teacher at the New School for Social Research and also gave private lessons. Her teaching pedagogy and probing, unfiltered style of picture making were embraced by her many students, the popular press, and museums. Attracted to diverse social types—much like her student Diane Arbus would later be—she focused her lens on cabaret performers and musicians, beggars and the flamboyantly wealthy, as well as other denizens of New York nightlife in the 1940s and 1950s.

Artist

Lisette Model

Date

ca. 1945

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Purchase, Alfred Stieglitz Society Gifts, 2019