Lisette Model by Lisette Model and Berenice Abbott, First Edition, New

This is the first trade edition of the critically acclaimed photobook “Lisette Model” published by Aperture, New York, in 1979 that was preceded only by a signed limited edition of 300 copies accompanied by an original photograph. This is the first book dedicated to the work of photographer Lisette Model and includes fifty-two large-format images of her greatest work (15 being double page). These works range from her photographs of rich tourists on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice to her gritty images of patrons at the dive bar Sammy’s in New York. Her photographs explore the mysteries of glamour in America, which can be seen in her photographs of Fifth Avenue window displays and on the beach at Coney Island. The famous cover photograph, “Coney Island Bather”, was taken on her first commission for Harper’s Bazaar. Vince Aletti in “The Book of 101 Books: Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century” writes, “"Printed in a 1943 issue of the magazine as an act of gleeful subversion on art director Alexey Brodovitch's part, the picture remains outrageous, hilarious and full of wild life. Though many of Model's earliest photos are bitingly satirical shots of the rich and blasé on the French Riviera, they're balanced here by equally aggressive but sympathetic photos of the Lower East Side's poor and dispossessed along with images from two series-of New York pedestrians' scurrying legs and of multilayered reflections in store windows-that look especially dynamic. Model's photos don't need any explanation, but let's give her the last word: 'By pointing the lens at something, I am asking a question, and the photograph sometimes is the answer”. Photobook summed it up best when they said, “One of the first documentarists to value people for their substance and sheer presence”.

Measuring approximately 16” x 12”, the book is bound in photographically illustrated laminated boards with a photographically illustrated dust jacket. The book was purchased directly from Aperture and is in MINT condition still in the publisher’s shrinkwrap.

Cited in “The Book of 101 Books: Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century” by Andrew Roth

Photographs of the front and back of the book in the shrinkwrap as well as stock photographs contained in the book appear in the photo section of the listing.