[New York, Lotte Jacobi, 1938]. Original gelatin silver photo (35.8 x 27.9 cm).

A large photo, in fact a cropped enlargement, by the photographer herself, of one of the most enigmatic photos of Albert Einstein, wearing a motor jacket. Despite the photo showing less than a quarter of the original negative, and being such a substantial enlargement, details of Einstein's face remain very sharp, and every single hair can be seen. Lotte Jacobi (1896-1990) was the fourth generation of her family of photographers and become the director of Jacobi Studio of Photography, founded in Posen (now Poznan, Poland) and later (1921) in Berlin. Between 1927 and 1935, she photographed many prominent figures from the arts and sciences, including Bertolt Brecht, Käthe Kollwitz, Lotte Lenya, Peter Lorre, Thomas Mann, Max Planck, Kurt Weill, and Albert Einstein. Jacobi is known for her use of unusual perspectives, cropped heads, and high or low angles, which places her work in line with the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) school of German photography. After 1933, Jacobi concealed her Jewish identity by working under various pseudonyms, and in 1935, she moved to New York City, having to leave her archive in Berlin, where it became lost. Both she and Albert Einstein (in 1933) renounced German citizenship, because of the political take-over by the Nazis. Signed by Jacobi, to the left of the right side of the collar of Eintein's jacket. A few, tiny irregularities to the right edge and top left corner edge; otherwise fine. Very rare. In fact, we do not know of any other copy.