The earliest photographs produced by Lisette Model that have been preserved were taken in Paris and in Côte d’Azur between 1933 and 1938. After leaving Austria in the late 1920s, the photographer moved to Paris, while her mother and sister relocated to Nice. In 1934 Model made the series Promenade des Anglais, both in the city as well as in other places in Côte d’Azur. The ensemble comprises a number of surprising and satirical portraits of the decadent European bourgeoisie that had moved to the south of France in order to escape the social, political, and economic conflicts that were affecting Europe.

These photographs, which contained a hidden social commentary, appeared in the French magazine Regards in 1935, illustrating an article that criticized the bourgeoisie. Years later, in 1941, they were published once again in the American magazine PM’s Weekly, alongside an article that had a similar leftist reading. Promenade des Anglais (French Gambler) is one of the images that model took without her subjects consent; in this case a tanned, suited man sunbathing in a chair. The advice she continuously gave to her students is evident in this picture: “shoot from your gut.”