JACOBI, LOTTE (JOHANNA)

born Aug. 17, 1896, Thorn, Ger. died May 6, 1990, Concord, N.H., U.S. German-American photographer noted for her portraits of famous figures. Born into a family of photographers (her great-grandfather in 1840 began as a professional daguerreotyper), Jacobi studied art history and literature at the Academy of Posen (191216) and attended the Bavarian State Academy of Photography in Munich and the University of Munich (192527). She directed the family's photography business in Berlin (192735) but then fled Nazi Germany and settled in the United States, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1940. She maintained a studio in New York City from 1935 to 1955 and then settled and worked in rural Deering, N.H. Jacobi's portraitures are noted for their natural, unpretentious, and often casual style. Her sitters have included Albert Einstein, Thomas Mann, Peter Lorre, Lotte Lenya, Marc Chagall, Pablo Casals, Alfred Stieglitz, Eleanor Roosevelt, Paul Tillich, J.D. Salinger, Marianne Moore, Robert Frost, and many others. She is also known for her abstract images (plays on light called photogenics) and for landscapes.