“DON’T SHOOT ’TIL THE SUBJECT HITS YOU IN THE PIT OF YOUR STOMACH”

MODEL, Lisette. Lisette Model. (Millerton, New York): Aperture, (1979). Slim folio, original laminated gray photographic boards, original dust jacket. $250.

First trade edition of this “look at life unblinkingly” (Berenice Abbott), with 51 rich photogravures (15 double-page), “representing Model’s greatest images.”

“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… [She] brought back memorable photos from Sammy’s Bar, the Bowery dive where Model found vivacity and stupor. All this work is included here, along with images from two series—of New York pedestrians’ scurrying legs and of multilayered reflections in store windows—that look especially dynamic in this scale… 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” (Roth, 242-43). The famous cover illustration “Coney Island Bather” was taken on her first commission from Harper’s Bazaar in 1941: “This is no foam-born Botticelli Venus… but she nevertheless radiates great charisma” (Icons of Photography, 82). Preface by Berenice Abbott. Preceded by a signed limited edition of 300 copies accompanied by an original photograph. Gift inscription.

Only faint foxing to first and last leaves, light rubbing to spine ends. A near-fine copy.