Over ninety vintage prints by the German-American photographer Lotte Jacobi (born in West Prussia in 1896; died in United States in 1990) will showcase her contribution to the history of photography. Jacobi learned the principals of photography from her father, and, in 1927, took over the family portrait studio in Berlin. Photography was a profession relatively open to women during the Weimar era.
Jacobi's vivid portraits filled the pages of the illustrated press, promoting the new cult of celebrities. Among her subjects are some of the most remarkable figures in German and American art and culture including Albert Einstein, Marc Chagall, Peter Lorre, Lotte Lenya and Robert Frost whose portraits will be included in this exhibition.
After 1933 Jacobi concealed her Jewish identity by working under various pseudonyms and in 1935 she immigrated to New York City, opening a studio on Central Park West. Later she moved to New Hampshire where she continued to photograph noted subjects and to develop her extraordinary oeuvre that poetically documents the nuances of the human condition.
