Lisette Model: The Jazz Pictures

Shelved during the McCarthy era, Model’s photographs of jazz musicians--together with a text by Langston Hughes--are finally published for the first time

Street photographer Lisette Model spent more than 10 years documenting Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Percy Heath, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and countless other luminaries of America’s jazz scene. From the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival to nightclub shows and raucous afterparties in cramped apartments, Model’s images are effusive and full of empathy, celebrating jazz at a time when the genre was under increasing political and cultural scrutiny.
During the 1950s, the New York Photo League was investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee for purported connections to the Communist Party. Model was interviewed by the FBI and eventually placed on its National Security Watchlist. This mounting political pressure led publishers and funders to rescind support of Model, and ultimately caused her to shelve the book dedicated to her jazz pictures, which was to feature an essay by Langston Hughes.
Now, this clothbound book finally realizes Model’s self-censored project, providing a fresh look at familiar faces who today signify the fight for freedom, equality and creative expression. Alongside Hughes’ original essay, texts by author Audrey Sands and saxophonist Loren Schoenberg underscore the importance of this series and the revelatory insight it shines on jazz music, both onstage and off.
Lisette Model (1901-83) was born in Vienna. She moved to Manhattan in 1938 and two years later Model hosted her first solo exhibition with the New York Photo League. Following the group’s dismantlement by the FBI, Model transitioned to teaching. Her most notable pupils included Diane Arbus, Helen Gee and John Gossage.