Lotte jacobi biography

Lotte Jacobi

German-American photographer

Lotte Jacobi

Lotte Jacobi, self portrait, circa

Born

Johanna Alexandra "Lotte" Jacobi


()August 17,

Toruń, Prussia (today Poland)

DiedMay 6, () (aged&#;93)

Deering, New Hampshire

CitizenshipAmerican
EducationRoyal Academy (Poznań), Bavarian State Academy of Photography and the University of Munich
OccupationPhotographer
Known&#;forPortrait photography
StyleHumanist photography
Spouse(s)Fritz Honig (m, div.

), Erich Reiss (m. , deceased in )

ChildrenJohn Honig

LotteJacobi (August 17, &#; May 6, ) was a leading American portrait photographer and photojournalist, known for her high-contrast black-and-white portrait photography, characterized by intimate, sometimes dramatic, sometimes idiosyncratic and often definitive humanist depictions of both ordinary people in the United States and Europe and some of the most important artists, thinkers and activists of the 20th century.

Lotte jacobi biography death She became interested in politics and was a fervent Democrat, representing New Hampshire at the Democratic National Convention in For a while, the two sisters worked out of the same studio in Manhattan, located on the corner of Sixth Avenue and 57th Street. Toggle the table of contents. Jacob, Naomi Ellington —

Work

Jacobi's photographic style stressed informality, and sought to delve deeper into the traits of her subjects than traditional portraiture.[1] She made a point of photographing subjects in their own environments, and talking to them while she worked.[1] She explained the reasoning behind her approach this way:

I just try and get people to talk, to relax, to be themselves.

I don't like a passive, bored subject. I do portraits because I like people, and I want to bring out their personalities. Many photographers today, I think, are bringing out the worst part of people. I try and bring out the best.[1]

“She taught me how to be good to people and create an environment where they could function and be comfortable,” New Hampshire Artist Laureate Gary Samson who helped Jacobi archive 47, negatives in the last decade of her life, and also created a documentary about her, explained.[2] "One of her most important lessons was to always let the subject 'rule the frame,' which he still regards as the correct balance in the dialogue between artist and subject."[2]

Jacobi is perhaps best known for her "portrait of Albert Einstein (Princeton, ), whom she photographed candidly, seated at his desk, dishevelled and dressed in a leather jacket, a work that was refused by Life magazine for its simplicity."[3] Other personality-driven portraits include "Eleanor Roosevelt sitting back, gesturing, and obviously speaking in midsentence; Marc Chagall depicted as a jovial family man; Thomas Mann appearing as thoughtful as his work; and more candid, gentle portraits of Einstein."[1] Other celebrated subjects included poets W.

H. Auden, Robert Frost, and May Sarton; philosopher Martin Buber; writer J.D. Salinger; writer and activist W. E. B. Du Bois; scientist Max Planck; artist Käthe Kollwitz; the actress and singer Lotte Lenya; the singer and activist Paul Robeson; the actor Peter Lorre; dancer Pauline Koner; fellow photographers Alfred Stieglitz, Berenice Abbott and Edward Steichen; and political figures such as the first president of Israel Chaim Weizmann.

Chronology

Born in Thorn (Toruń), Prussia (now in Poland), Jacobi was raised in nearby Posen, the eldest of three children.

  • Lotte jacobi einstein
  • Lotte jacobi biography images
  • Lotte jacobi photography

    • At the age of 12, she took her first photograph with a pinhole camera, which set the stage for her to become a fourth-generation photographer, following in the footsteps of her father, grandfather and "great-grandfather who had studied with Daguerre",[4] as well as joining her uncles, aunts and sister in the field.[5] "I was to be a photographer," Jacobi once said, "and that was that.'”[6]

    After training at the Bavarian State Academy of Photography and the University of Munich, Jacobi married in and, in , gave birth to her only child.

    In , Posen became part of Poland, and Jacobi relocated to Munich.[6] She divorced her husband in and, in , she entered the family photography business.[4]

    From until , Jacobit managed her father's Berlin studio. During this period, she also began to work independently as a photographer. "Equipped with an Ermanox camera, she was passionate about dance and theatre photography.

    The exhibition Dance photographs organised by the Brooklyn Museum in presented a number of her moving images."[3] But because portraits were the family specialty, they became her focus, as well, and soon "the local newspapers – Berlin had of them – were clamoring for her work."[1] Represented by the Schostal Photo Agency (Agentur Schostal),[7] Jacobi also began producing films.[6] There would be four in all, the most important of which was Portrait of the Artist, a study of artist and graphic designer Josef Scharl.[6]

    In –33, Jacobi traveled to the Soviet Union, in particular to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, taking photographs of what she saw.[6] She returned to Berlin in February , a month after Hitler came to power.

    As persecution against Jews rose, the left-wing and Jewish-born Jacobi found her work praised by German officials for its "good examples of Aryan photography".[8] Soon after, Jacobi fled Germany with her son, losing nearly all of her early work when she immigrated.[5] The pair arrived in New York City in September and, within three weeks,[1] Jacobi had founded another family photography studio, alongside her sister Ruth Jacobi Roth.[4]

    "In the s, she approached experimental photography with her Photogenics series, images playing with textures and light, realised without a camera.

    A part of her series Adventures in the World of Light was exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in in the exhibition In and Out of Focus.

  • Item 8 of 10
  • Item 1 of 1
  • Lotte Jacobi | Jewish Women's Archive
  • Jacobi, Lotte (1896–1990) - Encyclopedia.com

    • In her New York studio as well as in her New Hampshire gallery that she opened in Deering in , she exhibited photographers that she loved, such as Minor White, as well as other female artists."[3]

    During the s, Jacobi continued portrait photography as well as her pursuits in photogenic abstraction.[8] In , Jacobi left New York with her son and daughter-in-law, and moved to Deering, New Hampshire, a move that changed her life.

    There, she opened a new studio, where she both continued her own work and displayed work by other artists. She became interested in politics and was a fervent Democrat, representing New Hampshire at the Democratic National Convention in She traveled extensively and enjoyed new-found fame in the s and s.[1]

    Jacobi died May 6, , at the age of [9] She bequeathed 47, negatives to the Lotte Jacobi Archives established at the University of New Hampshire.[6]

    Jacobi's work was included in the exhibition Women in Abstraction at the Centre Pompidou.[10]

    Education

    Jacobi studied literature and art history at the Royal Academy in Poznań from to , and completed her formal artistic training at the Bavarian State Academy of Photography and the University of Munich from to

    Public collections

    Her work is included in prestigious museum collections world-wide, including the MOMA,[11] the J.

    Paul Getty Museum,[12] the Jewish Museum,[13] the Los Angeles County Museum of Art,[14] the Philadelphia Museum of Art,[15] the Princeton University Art Museum,[16] the Israel Museum,[17]Berlinische Galerie,[18] and the National Gallery of Art.[19]

    Personal life

    The eldest of three children, born to parents Maria and Sigismund, Jacobi and her sister Ruth were fourth-generation photographers.

    ("A brother Alexander died at age "[6]) Nicknamed "Lotte" by her father,[20] Jacobi went on to adopt it as her professional name. In , she married Fritz Honig, and a year later she gave birth to a son, John. The marriage did not last, and in they divorced. She then relocated to Berlin in In , she fled Nazi Germany for New York City where she would remain for the next 20 years.[5] In , she married Erich Reiss, a distinguished German book publisher and writer, a marriage that lasted until his death in [6] In , she relocated to New Hampshire where she remained until her death in [2]

    External links

    Notes

    1. ^ abcdefgLenhart, Maria (Feb 24, ).

      "Lotte Jacobi: absorbed in a career of extraordinary images". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved May 26,

    2. ^ abcMorley, Anders (Aug 20, ). "A Life of Moments – Photographer Gary Samson". New Hampshire Magazine.
    3. ^ abcReverseau, Anne ().

      "Lotte Jacobi". Aware Women Artists. Retrieved May 26,

    4. ^ abc"Lotte Jacobi". International Center of Photography. Retrieved
    5. ^ abc"Lotte Jacobi (American, born Germany, - ) (Getty Museum)".

      The J. Paul Getty in Los Angeles.

      Lotte jacobi biography wikipedia During these years, a pilgrimage to Moscow was virtually obligatory for the world's anti-fascists. Jacobi is perhaps best known for her "portrait of Albert Einstein Princeton, , whom she photographed candidly, seated at his desk, dishevelled and dressed in a leather jacket, a work that was refused by Life magazine for its simplicity. I don't like a passive, bored subject. I am a born rebel and a troublemaker," she told critic Vicki Goldberg American Photographer, March

      Retrieved

    6. ^ abcdefgh"Guide to the Lotte Jacobi Papers, ". 13 February Retrieved
    7. ^Rebecca Madamba () The Schostal Agency: A Finding Aid for the Schostal Agency Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

      Thesis of the Honours Bachelors of Arts, Studies in Arts and Culture, Concentration in Curatorial Studies, Brock University.

    8. ^ ab"Lotte Jacobi | Jewish Women's Archive". .

      Lotte jacobi photogenics Jacob, Naomi Ellington. Her enthusiasm for photography continued. Jacobs Suchard AG. Introduction by James Fasanelli.

      Retrieved

    9. ^"Lotte Jacobi". Fosters Group / Foster's Daily Democrat.
    10. ^Women in abstraction. London&#;: New York, New York: Thames & Hudson Ltd.&#;; Thames & Hudson Inc. p.&#; ISBN&#;.
    11. ^"Lotte Jacobi". Museum of Modern Art.

      Retrieved 28 June

    12. ^"Lotte Jacobi".

      Lotte jacobi einstein: Lotte Jacobi August 17, — May 6, was a leading American portrait photographer and photojournalist , known for her high-contrast black-and-white portrait photography, characterized by intimate, sometimes dramatic, sometimes idiosyncratic and often definitive humanist depictions of both ordinary people in the United States and Europe and some of the most important artists, thinkers and activists of the 20th century. Because each style has its own formatting nuances that evolve over time and not all information is available for every reference entry or article, Encyclopedia. I do portraits because I like people, and I want to bring out their personalities. October , pp.

      The J. Paul Getty Museum Collection. Retrieved 28 June

    13. ^"Untitled". The Jewish Museum. Retrieved 28 June
    14. ^"Photogenic". LACMA Collections. Retrieved 28 June
    15. ^"Lotte Jacobi". Philadelphia Museum of Art. Retrieved 28 June
    16. ^"At the Window (x)".

      Princeton University Art Museum. Retrieved 28 June

    17. ^"Landscape". Israel Museum. Retrieved 28 June
    18. ^"Lotte Jacobi". Berlinische Galerie. Retrieved 28 June
    19. ^"Lieselotte Felger, die Wespentaille in dem Tanz, der Kreisel, Berlin (Lieselotte Felger as "Die Wespentaille" in the Dance "Der Kreisel," Berlin)".

      Lotte jacobi biography Public collections [ edit ]. Jacobellis, Lindsey —. Surprisingly, he remembered her request and by September , Jacobi was in the Soviet Union taking photographs. In the early s, her great-grandfather went to Paris to learn about photography from the new sensation's inventor, Louis Daguerre.

      National Gallery of Art. Retrieved 28 June

    20. ^Kelly Wise (). Lotte Jacobi. Danbury: Addison House. p.&#;