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

THOMAS, Ann. Lisette Model. Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1990. Tall, thick quarto, original illustrated stiff paper covers. $550.

First edition of this comprehensive museum catalogue, produced in conjunction with the 1990 retrospective exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada, with 325 rich duotones. From the library of noted photojournalist Peter Turnley.

Model takes “a look at life unblinkingly” (Berenice Abbott). “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” (Roth, 242-43). Published coincident with the comprehensive retrospective at the National Gallery of Canada, which “drew extensively from never-before-published material from the Model archives.” In Model’s words, “People should be free to discover for themselves, without being told what to see” (Parr & Badger II,:204). See Icons of Photography, 82. From the library of Peter Turnley, acclaimed photojournalist for Newsweek and Harper’s Magazine, who has covered “almost every important international news event of the last 15 years” (New York Times). Owner signature.

Fine condition.