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| Herald Square, 34th and Broadway, 1936, Gelatin Silver Print, 8 x 10 in |
Photography can
never grow up if it imitates some other medium. It has to walk alone; it has to be itself. -- Berenice Abbott
Berenice Abbott (1898-1991) was one of many Americans drawn
to live as expatriates in Paris
in the 1920s. It was there that she
became interested in photography, initially working as an assistant to Man Ray,
a role she held from 1924-1926. She
later photographed many of the great writers, artists, and eventual cultural
icons living there, including James Joyce, Jean Cocteau, Edna St. Vincent
Millay, and Max Ernst. Her portraits
from this period are direct, seeking less to flatter the sitter than to present
unveiled, fascinating faces.
In Paris,
she discovered the photographer Eugène Atget, whose work had considerable influence
on her own. Abbott fought not only to
secure recognition for Atget’s major contribution, but also for the
preservation of his work, much of which resides today at the Museum of Modern Art
in New York.
When Abbott returned to the United
States and New
York at the end of the decade, she did commercial
work for Fortune magazine. At this time
she embarked on the most important of all her life’s work, a portrait of the
city of New York. The Federal Art Project’s “Changing New York”
became an important document historically and artistically, and secured Abbott
a major place in 20th century American photography.
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| Tempo of the City, 1938, Gelatin Silver Print, 8 x 7.5 in |
Many of the buildings and landmarks she caught on film have
since been demolished. Her varied images
of New York
in the 1930s display impressive high-rises and quaint street fronts, wide
avenues and unpolished back alleys, docks and ferries, businessmen and street
people. She took views from below,
capturing the wonder and pride of looking up at a confident, strong city built
out of the hard work and imaginations of peers and ancestors. She soared above it and shot glimpses of the
life below, capturing the soul of the city both in tight compositions and in
expansive views. Her use of light and
shadow is as complicated and exciting as her range of subjects and
perspectives.
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