Lotte Jacobi | |
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 Lotte Jacobi, self portrait, circa 1930. | |
| Born | Johanna Alexandra "Lotte" Jacobi (1896-08-17)August 17, 1896 |
| Died | May 6, 1990(1990-05-06) (aged 93) |
| Citizenship | American |
| Education | Royal Academy (Poznań), Bavarian State Academy of Photography and the University of Munich |
| Occupation | Photographer |
| Known for | Portrait photography |
| Style | Humanist photography |
| Spouse(s) | Fritz Honig (m.1917, div. 1924), Erich Reiss (m. 1940, deceased in 1951) |
| Children | John Honig |
LotteJacobi (August 17, 1896 – May 6, 1990) was a leading German-Americanportrait photographer andphotojournalist, known for her high-contrast black-and-white portrait photography, characterized by intimate, sometimes dramatic, sometimes idiosyncratic and often definitivehumanist 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.
Jacobi's photographic style stressed informality, and sought to delve deeper into the traits of her subjects than traditionalportraiture.[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 47,000 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 ofAlbert Einstein (Princeton, 1938), whom she photographed candidly, seated at his desk, dishevelled and dressed in a leather jacket, a work that was refused byLife 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 poetsW. H. Auden,Robert Frost, andMay Sarton; philosopherMartin Buber; writerJ.D. Salinger; writer and activistW. E. B. Du Bois; scientistMax Planck; artistKäthe Kollwitz; the actress and singerLotte Lenya; the singer and activistPaul Robeson; the actorPeter Lorre; dancerPauline Koner; fellow photographersAlfred Stieglitz,Berenice Abbott andEdward Steichen; and political figures such as the first president of IsraelChaim Weizmann.
Born inThorn (Toruń),Prussia (now in Poland), Jacobi was raised in nearbyPosen, the eldest of three children. 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 withDaguerre",[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 theBavarian State Academy of Photography and theUniversity of Munich, Jacobi married in 1916 and, in 1917, gave birth to her only child. In 1921, Posen became part of Poland, and Jacobi relocated to Munich.[6] She divorced her husband in 1924 and, in 1927, she entered the family photography business.[4]
From 1927 until 1935, Jacobi 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 exhibitionDance photographs organised by the Brooklyn Museum in 1937 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 120 of them – were clamoring for her work."[1] Represented by theSchostal Photo Agency (Agentur Schostal),[7] Jacobi also began producing films.[6] There would be four in all, the most important of which wasPortrait of the Artist, a study of artist and graphic designer Josef Scharl.[6]
In 1932–33, Jacobi traveled to theSoviet Union, in particular toTajikistan andUzbekistan, taking photographs of what she saw.[6] She returned to Berlin in February 1933, 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 1935 and, within three weeks,[1] Jacobi had founded another family photography studio, alongside her sister Ruth Jacobi Roth.[4]
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"In the 1940s, she approached experimental photography with herPhotogenics series, images playing with textures and light, realised without a camera. A part of her seriesAdventures in the World of Light was exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in 1948 in the exhibitionIn and Out of Focus. In her New York studio as well as in her New Hampshire gallery that she opened in Deering in 1963, she exhibited photographers that she loved, such asMinor White, as well as other female artists."[3]
During the 1950s, Jacobi continued portrait photography as well as her pursuits in photogenicabstraction.[8] In 1955, Jacobi left New York with her son and daughter-in-law, and moved toDeering, 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 theDemocratic National Convention in 1980. She traveled extensively and enjoyed new-found fame in the 1970s and 1980s.[1]
Jacobi died May 6, 1990, at the age of 93.[9] She bequeathed 47,000 negatives to theLotte Jacobi Archives established at the University of New Hampshire.[6]
Jacobi's work was included in the 2021 exhibitionWomen in Abstraction at theCentre Pompidou.[10]
Jacobi studied literature and art history at theRoyal Academy in Poznań from 1912 to 1917, and completed her formal artistic training at the Bavarian State Academy of Photography and theUniversity of Munich from 1925 to 1927.
Her work is included in prestigious museum collections world-wide, including theMOMA,[11] theJ. Paul Getty Museum,[12] theJewish Museum,[13] theLos Angeles County Museum of Art,[14] thePhiladelphia Museum of Art,[15] the Princeton University Art Museum,[16] theIsrael Museum,[17]Berlinische Galerie,[18] and theNational Gallery of Art.[19]
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 20."[6]) Nicknamed "Lotte" by her father,[20] Jacobi went on to adopt it as her professional name. In 1916, she married Fritz Honig, and a year later she gave birth to a son, John. The marriage did not last, and in 1924 they divorced. She then relocated toBerlin in 1925. In 1935, she fled Nazi Germany forNew York City where she would remain for the next 20 years.[5] In 1940, she married Erich Reiss, a distinguished German book publisher and writer, a marriage that lasted until his death in 1951.[6] In 1955, she relocated to New Hampshire where she remained until her death in 1990.[2]
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