Berenice Abbott
An American photographer, Berenice Abbott was a central figure in and important bridge between the photographic circles and cultural hubs of Paris and New York. She was born in Springfield, Ohio, and in 1918 moved to New York, where she studied sculpture independently, meeting and making vital connections with Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray, leaders of the American avant-garde. In 1921, Abbott moved to Paris and continued her study of sculpture there and, later, in Berlin, before returning to Paris and becoming an assistant at the Man Ray Studio, where she would master photography. Her first solo show was at the gallery Le Sacre du Printemps in Paris in 1926 and featured portraits of the Parisian avant-garde, a practice she continued throughout her years in Paris, as in James Joyce.
It was in 1925 at the Man Ray Studio that Abbott first saw photographs by Eugène Atget. After Atget’s death, in 1927, she collaborated with Julien Levy, of New York’s Julien Levy Gallery, to buy most of Atget’s negatives and prints, bringing them back to New York upon her return in 1929. Abbott’s initiative preserved the archive of this fin-de-siècle French photographer’s studio, which, given its influence on the avant-garde, has become an important chapter of Abbott’s legacy.
Arriving back in New York in 1929, Abbott was struck by the rapid transformation of the built landscape. On the eve of the Great Depression she began a series of documentary photographs of the city that, with the support of the Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project from 1935 to 1939, debuted in 1939 as the traveling exhibition and publication Changing New York, (see Daily News Building, 220 East 42nd Street, Manhattan, Fifth Avenue, Nos. 4, 6, 8, Manhattan, and Cedar Street from William Street, Manhattan. For the rest of her life Abbott advocated for a documentary style of photography as exemplified in this project, while also continuing to promote the work of Atget.
Her work was included in many influential exhibitions of the era, including the Salon de l’escalier, 1928; Fotografie der Gegenwart, 1929; Film und Foto, 1929; and Photography: 1839–1937, 1938; as well as in a solo-exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in 1932. In 1970, The Museum of Modern Art hosted a career retrospective.
Introduction by Mitra Abbaspour, Associate Curator, Department of Photography, 2014
- Introduction
- Berenice Abbott (July 17, 1898 – December 9, 1991), née Bernice Alice Abbott, was an American photographer best known for her portraits of between-the-wars 20th century cultural figures, New York City photographs of architecture and urban design of the 1930s, and science interpretation in the 1940s to 1960s.
- Wikidata
- Q231861
- Introduction
- Abbott worked in Paris as a darkroom assistant to American Surrealist photographer Man Ray in 1923. Although she is responsible for bringing international recognition to the work of French photographer Eugène Atget, she is best known for her black and white photographs of New York in transition in the 1930s.
- Nationality
- American
- Gender
- Female
- Roles
- Artist, Photographer
- Names
- Berenice Abbott, Berenice Abbot
- Ulan
- 500020631
Exhibitions
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510: A Modern Media World
Ongoing
MoMA
Collection gallery
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511: The Vertical City
Oct 21, 2019–Oct 12, 2020
MoMA
Collection gallery
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520: Picturing America
Ongoing
MoMA
Collection gallery
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510: Machines, Mannequins, and Monsters
Oct 21, 2019–Sep 7, 2020
MoMA
Collection gallery
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519: Architecture for Modern Art
Ongoing
MoMA
Collection gallery
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Berenice Abbott has
67 exhibitionsonline.
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Berenice Abbott James Joyce 1926
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Berenice Abbott Hands of Jean Cocteau 1927
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Berenice Abbott Eugene Atget 1927
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Berenice Abbott James Joyce 1928
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Berenice Abbott El at Columbus Avenue and Broadway 1929
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Berenice Abbott Barclay Street, Hoboken Ferry 1931
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Berenice Abbott Rockefeller Center, New York City 1932
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Berenice Abbott New York at Night 1932
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Berenice Abbott Trinity Churchyard c. 1932
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Berenice Abbott Exchange Place, New York 1933
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Berenice Abbott Barclay Street Elevated Platform 1933
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Berenice Abbott Newsstand, East 32nd Street and Third Avenue, Manhattan November 19, 1935
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Berenice Abbott Blossom Restaurant, 103 Bowery, Manhattan October 24, 1935
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Berenice Abbott Seventh Avenue Looking South from 35th Street, Manhattan December 5, 1935
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Berenice Abbott Spring and Varick Streets, Manhattan October 7, 1935
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Berenice Abbott West Side of Gramercy Park West, nos. 3-4, Manhattan November 27, 1935
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Berenice Abbott Firehouse, Park Avenue, East 135th Street, Manhattan December 19, 1935
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Berenice Abbott South and DePeyster Streets, Manhattan November 26, 1935
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Berenice Abbott Daily News Building, 220 East 42nd Street, Manhattan November 21, 1935
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Berenice Abbott Department of Docks Building, Pier A, Manhattan May 5, 1936
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Berenice Abbott Canyon: Broadway and Exchange Place, Manhattan July 16, 1936
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Berenice Abbott Willow Place, nos. 43-49, Brooklyn May 14, 1936
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Berenice Abbott Lyric Theatre, 100 Third Avenue, Manhattan April 24, 1936
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Berenice Abbott Starrett-Lehigh Building, 601 West 26th Street, Manhattan July 14, 1936
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Berenice Abbott Talman Street between Jay and Bridge Streets, Brooklyn May 22, 1936
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Berenice Abbott Brooklyn Bridge, Water and New Dock Streets, Brooklyn May 22, 1936
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Berenice Abbott Pike and Henry Streets, Manhattan March 6, 1936
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Berenice Abbott McGraw-Hill Building, 330 West 42nd Street, Manhattan May 25, 1936
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Berenice Abbott Warehouse, Water and Dock Streets, Brooklyn May 22, 1936
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Berenice Abbott Waterfront from Pier 19, East River, Manhattan August 12, 1936
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Berenice Abbott Cropsey Avenue, no. 1736, Bath Beach, Brooklyn October 29, 1936
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Berenice Abbott Fourth Avenue, no. 154, Brooklyn October 29, 1936
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Berenice Abbott Washington Square North, nos. 21-25, Manhattan August 12, 1936
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Berenice Abbott Downtown Skyport, Foot of Wall Street, Manhattan August 12, 1936
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Berenice Abbott Sumner Healy Antique Shop, 942 Third Avenue October 8, 1936
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Berenice Abbott Fifth Avenue, Nos. 4, 6, 8, Manhattan March 20, 1936
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Berenice Abbott Cedar Street from William Street, Manhattan March 26, 1936
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Berenice Abbott Poultry Shop, Lower East Side, New York City 1937
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Berenice Abbott Wheelock House, 661 West 158th Street, Manhattan November 11, 1937
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Berenice Abbott Corner of East 10th Street and Avenue D, Manhattan March 23, 1937
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Berenice Abbott 27th Avenue, no. 1422, Astoria May 25, 1937
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Berenice Abbott Three-Decker Houses, West 11th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, Manhattan February 3, 1937
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Berenice Abbott Doorway, 204 West 13th Street, Manhattan May 5, 1937
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Berenice Abbott Gunsmith, 6 Centre Market Place, Manhattan February 4, 1937
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Berenice Abbott TriBorough Bridge, East 125th Street Approach, Manhattan June 29, 1937
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Berenice Abbott Father Duffy, Times Square April 14, 1937
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Berenice Abbott View from West Street, Manhattan March 23, 1938
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Berenice Abbott Hardware Store, 316-318 Bowery, Manhattan January 26, 1938
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