Lisette Model’s Jazz Images

On March 15th, Gallery 292 in New York will open a new exhibit of vintage jazz photography by Lisette Model. Best known for her striking images shot in New York’s Lower East Side, Coney Island and the boardwalk in Nice, France during the 1940s, Model was primarily a street photographer whose work captured the immediacy of city life. In the 1950s the sound of jazz took Model off the streets and into the nightclubs where Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Horace Silver and other prominent musicians played nightly. Model used her camera liberally while the players performed and created a pictorial history of the New York jazz scene in the ’50s. These images, including shots of Ray Charles crooning into the microphone, Percy Heath plucking the bass and shots of jazz audiences roaring with delight will be on display at the gallery until April 27th.

Gallery 292 is located at 120 Wooster St. in SoHo between Prince and

Spring Streets on the 2nd floor. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday

from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Originally Published March 12, 2002