[Dizzy Gillespie Kneeling with Camera]

Lisette Model is one of the most influential, if still underappreciated, photographers of the twentieth century. She is known equally for her candid street portraits made in France and New York and for her critical role as a private art teacher to Diane Arbus, Larry Fink and Rosalind Solomon, among many others. Born in Austria, Model studied music in Vienna with expressionist composer Arnold Schoenberg prior to immigrating to New York via Paris in 1938. In New York, Model quickly became a fixture of the jazz scene and began making intimate, informal portraits of musicians during performance, aptly fusing her own passion for music with an appreciation for dynamic composition and off-beat lighting. Model intended to publish these expressive nighttime portraits in a book with poems by Langston Hughes, but was unable to secure funding.

Made between 1945 and 1961, these nine photographs are all closely framed studies of now world-famous musicians immersed in their craft, from George Lewis to Louis Armstrong. Model reveals the transitory emotional states of her subjects, but is careful not to directly engage with the performers. Generally, the musicians are presented individually with an occasional graphic backdrop or fellow performer in view, as with pianists John Lewis and Alton Purnell, clarinetist George Lewis, cellist Calo Scott, banjoist Lawrence Marrero, and bassist Alcide Pavageau. Also featured are Willie "The Lion" Smith at the piano with a jazz club audience; and Dizzy Gillespie using a Rolleiflex camera in the aisles during a jazz festival.