Berenice Abbott
U.S.,
1898-1994 New York at Night (Westside Looking North from the Upper Thirties), 1933-37
Gelatin silver print
9 5/16 x
7 1/2"
Purchased with Grants from The Charles E. Merrill Trust and
the NEA, 1973
Let us first say what photography is not.
A photograph is not a painting, a poem, a symphony, a dance. It
is not just a pretty picture, not an exercise in contortionist techniques
and sheer print quality. It is or should be a significant document,
a penetrating statement, which can be described in a very simple
term-selectivity.
- Berenice Abbott
While studying and working in Paris
during the 1920s, Abbott was deeply moved by the photographs of
Eugene Atget, who documented Paris at the turn of the century. Upon
returning to the United States in 1929, Abbott began to photograph
Manhattan Island as Atget had documented Paris. Using a view camera
on a tripod, she made over 300 virtually depopulated photographs
of the city for the WPA Federal Art Project's Changing New York
program. Abbott saw her project as one of making a documentary record
for the use of future historians and city planners.
