Lower East Side, New York

Born in Vienna, Lisette Model moved to Paris, France in the mid-1920s to train as a singer and did not take up photography until 1934. She earned her reputation photographing rich vacationers in Nice, whom she portrayed in a crude, hostile manner as a criticism of their self-delusional lives of wealth and decadence. In 1937, Model married and emigrated to New York. Her street photography, which she had begun in Nice, flourished in New York, and, like those taken in Nice, many of her pictures mocked the American obsession with glamour among people off all classes. While her photographs ranged from reflections in shop windows, to images with extreme viewpoints, she was best known for her close-up, candid, and direct portraits, like this one.