Famous Austrians VII: Lisette Model

San Francisco, Lisette Model, 1949

Born Elise Amelie Felicie Stern in Vienna in 1901, Lisette Model is one of the most iconic women photographers of the 20th century. She moved from Vienna to Nice as a young girl, and then to Paris to study music in 1926. She later switched her focus to painting and photography and moved to New York with her husband in 1938. To earn a living at first, she worked as a staff photographer for Harper's Bazaar. In the 1950s, she taught photography at the New School in New York. Among her pupils was a young Diane Arbus.

Coney Island, New York, 1941, Lisette Model

Her work is evocative of a need for questioning human motives, society, and in many cases the lives of those on the social fringe in the 1940's and 1950's when Model was at the height of her fecundity. Divorcees, the obese, old people were all considered viable, and worthy, photographic subjects - which can be seen taken to an even further extreme in Arbus' works. Her street scenes and night life photographs are also famous and enduring. The human form, in all its intricacies: beauty, reality of form and figure, necessity of limbs and movement, at once familiarity and strangeness.

Reflections, New York, 1939, Lisette Model

Model died in 1983, but her work lives on. A particularly good  permanent exhibit of her work is at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.  There are also pieces at the MoMA in New York and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. 

On the 10th Anniversary of 9/11

I'm surprised to see so much in the news and on TV about the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks here in Austria. But then again, I'm not. The world does feel so globalized watching CNN via satellite, or listening to Angela Merkel express her thoughts on the comparison between 9/11 and the Fall of the Berlin Wall.

When 9/11 happened, I was in the 9th grade, sitting in French class. A neighboring teacher who had the period free knocked on our door and told the French teacher to turn on CNN, now. Something just happened in New York. I remember doing nothing but watch CNN the whole day in every class. People were glued to the screen. They wanted to know how something like this could happen to Americans on American soil. Who did this? What was the motive? Why were the World Trade Towers targeted? Or the Pentagon? When would someone explain this? When would it be better?

The explanation we got was a mediocre one, a small-minded retaliatory reaction. There were Saudi terrorists, who hated America and all it stood for, who hijacked these commercial airplanes and drove them, with innocent civilians aboard, into the Twin Towers. They did what only comes natural to Muslim Arabs - jihad and suicide missions to destroy the American Way. Thus, we as a nation needed to go after Al Qaeda, the organization, and Osama bin Laden, the man, responsible for these atrocities.

I, for one, called bullshit. I hate to get political on this blog, because that's not what it's for, and I don't mean to desecrate the memories of all the innocent victims of the attacks, but after gaining some perspective on things - by living abroad and allowing myself to see things from a non-American vantage, even if second-hand - I realized that nationalism and jingoism are the true evils. They are responsible for the terror attacks. They are responsible for the bombing of mosques, synagogues and churches in the West Bank. They are responsible evoking the term "Freedom Fries" when France did not support the USA's decision to invade Iraq.

Even when I was in 9th grade, when the War on Terror was declared and people were calling for "justice," I cringed. It saddened me to see violence and atrocious, reptilian behavior met with more violence and atrocious, reptilian behavior. For that's what war is. Just think about it: the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq have been going on for 10 years and 8 years respectively and have cost a hundred times more casualties that the original attacks, and a thousand times more pain and suffering. The War in Afghanistan is the longest military conflict in American history, having surpassed the Vietnam War in 2010. Not to mention how much money it's costing taxpayers to fund the war - more than all the schools and teachers' salaries, more than all the hospitals and homeless shelters and Planned Parenthood centers and welfare aid paid out in every state of the Union combined.

And growing sentiment since 9/11 further fueled anger against Muslims and Arabs in the United States - and abroad -  subjecting them to racial profiling and other forms of discrimination. When I was working at the summer camp this year, (you may remember my post about this if you "follow" my blog), I was the Munich Airport manager. I had to escort, among other campers, four very nice boys from Bahrain to their plane as unaccompanied minors. When we when through security, each of the boys were body scanned and searched, and treated quite rudely. I especially noticed, as I was treated kindly in contrast, and there's no doubt in my mind it's because I'm white and "European-looking." If I had been wearing a burka, I'm sure I would have been treated differently, too. It made me so angry seeing these sweet little boys patted down just because of the way they looked and where they're from. One of the boys, Muhammed, said to me before we got to the security gate, "I bet we get patted down. We always do." Out of 60 kids, they were the only four who were.

Excuse me if I'm not being enough of a patriot on Patriot Day. I just can't bring myself to sing, "God Bless America" at the top of my lungs, when I know that hatred of a named enemy is what keeps people going in the good ol' US of A. In the 1950s, it was the Russians. Who will it be when oil in the Middle East runs out?

New York - Feel the City

Last weekend, my school had a ball. The theme was New York City - and, of course, as the American in residence, I found it rather amusing.

The decorations were great. The Midnight Show (sort of a variety act the 5th year students directed and performed) was adorable - about this little Austrian girl who goes off to the big city and  gets into a production of Fame.

The venue was the sports hall across from the school. And the one thing that totally freaked me out was the drinking -  even though I should be aware of this by now. Seeing as kids can drink at 16 in Austria, they are going to...I was just a bit taken aback by how much they drank at a school function.

And smoked.   I felt like a strip of bacon by the end of the night. And smelled like an  ashtray.  

And there was not much dancing - except by the old people doing the waltz. Mostly it was just standing around with a beer or  glass of wine and listening to the band - there was a live band!

But it was enjoyable nonetheless.

 Here are the pictures I took of all of the great decorations.

There are also some pics of what most people did all night - stand around.

guy in Lederhosen

There is also a great one of this guy in his Lederhosen. Yes, in Austria some people really do wear their Trachten as formal wear. They are typically older, conservative people. But there were plenty of ladies in Dirndl wandering around. Most of the teenage girls wore American-style prom dresses...appropriately enough.

Subway - to hell?

my camera also had something to drink ;)

People *actually* dancing!!!

And finally: the Liberty Cafe. I sort of supervised/helped out here for a bit at the end of the night. I was kind of surprised how many people came to drink coffee at 3am - but perhaps I shouldn't have been!

Also, the overabundance of Statues of Liberty at the dance reminded me of my own Junior Prom, whose theme was "Paris in the Moonlight" and where there was an overabundance of Eiffel Towers as well. It seems national monuments can spontaneously multiply if they figure in a school dance theme...

Statue of Liberty #7?