While photographer Berenice Abbott has wrongly never been heralded as one of the defining giants of 20th-century photography, she is widely known, indeed celebrated, for her iconic portraits of some of the most glamorous denizens of 1920s bohemian Paris.
And although less familiar, Abbott’s photos of the deserted streets, aging tenements and rising office towers of Depression-era New York have been critically recognized as nothing short of groundbreaking. Additionally, her relatively obscure work as a science photographer has received an admiring reappraisal in recent years. Recognized for having dramatically advanced the medium’s aesthetics and techniques (earning four patents along the way), not to mention the ambition of her subject matter — the principle laws of physics — she has been favorably compared to two early masters of modernist experimentation: her mentor Man Ray and László Moholy Nagy.
In 1918, at just 19, freckled, androgynous and with cropped hair, Abbott fell in with a crowd that included the lesbian writer and illustrator Djuna Barnes and the Dadaists Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp. They encouraged her to follow them to Paris and study with the renowned sculptor Antoine Bourdelle. Unable to pay for her training, and barely surviving, Abbott took a job as Man Ray’s assistant. The miracles of the darkroom quickly converted her to photography, as did her paycheck, and Man Ray tutored her in its fundamentals.
By 1926, Abbott had set up her own studio with backing from Peggy Guggenheim, the American heiress and art patron. André Gide, Jean Cocteau, Janet Flanner and James Joyce were among the luminaries and socialites who came for sittings. Her subversive lens made for riveting portraits.
A number of Abbott’s images of New York appear to have been shot by drone or, in the technological equivalent for the day, a dirigible. They actually entailed her stationing herself precariously on the rooftops and ledges of the skyscrapers along Wall Street and Midtown.
That feat recalls the famous photograph of Abbott’s contemporary and fellow Ohioan Margaret Bourke-White taking a shot of the New York skyline astride one of the metallic eagle heads atop the Chrysler building. One can only wonder if a photograph of Abbott in a similarly heroic pose would have helped her recognition as the trailblazing documentarian she was.
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WASHINGTON SQUARE LOOKING NORTH
By Berenice Abbott, 1898-1991
Located in Portland, ME
Abbott, Berenice. WASHINGTON SQUARE LOOKING NORTH. Vintage Gelatin Silver print, 1936. Stamped verso "Federal Art Project/"Changing New York"/Photograp...
Silver Gelatin
New York at Night
By Berenice Abbott, 1898-1991
Located in New York, NY
13.5 x 10.5 inch gelatin silver print, printed circa 1980 Framed to 26.5 x 22.5 inches Signed on verso Berenice Abbott's "New York at Night" is one ...
Silver Gelatin
EL STATION - NINTH AVENUE LINE
By Berenice Abbott, 1898-1991
Located in Portland, ME
Abbott, Berenice EL STATION - NINTH AVENUE LINE Vintage Gelatin Silver print, 1936. Stamped verso "Federal Art Project/"Changing New York"/Photographs by Berenice Abbott" and also s...
Silver Gelatin
GUS HILL'S MINSTRELS
By Berenice Abbott, 1898-1991
Located in Portland, ME
Abbott, Berenice GUS HILL'S MINSTRELS Vintage Gelatin Silver print, 1936. Stamped verso "Federal Art Project/"Changing New York"/Photographs by Berenice Abbott" and also stamped and ...
Silver Gelatin
Hoboken Ferry Terminal, Lackawanna Railroad, Barclay Street, New York
By Berenice Abbott, 1898-1991
Located in New York, NY
This work is offered by CLAMP in New York City.
Silver Gelatin
Edward Hopper, 1947
By Berenice Abbott, 1898-1991
Located in Santa Monica, CA
Signed and numbered in pencil on recto Gelatin Silver Print Image - 18"x23", Matted - 27"x33"
Silver Gelatin
Lyric Theatre, 100 Third Avenue 1936, Hand Signed Gelatin Silver Print, Framed
By Berenice Abbott, 1898-1991
Located in Aventura, FL
Lyric Theatre, 100 Third Avenue 1936. Printed in 1982. Gelatin silver print on mounting sheet. Hand signed by Abbott lower right margin of the mount. Hand stamped reading "Bereni...
Paper, Silver Gelatin
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Price Upon Request
New York Stock Exchange [Wall Street]
By Berenice Abbott, 1898-1991
Located in New York, NY
Gelatin silver print mounted to museum board Signed in pencil on overmat, l.r. Photographer's 'Abbott, Maine' stamp in black ink, verso of mount 9.5 x 7.5 inches, sheet 14 x 11 inches, mount 16.625 x 13.375 inches, overmat This artwork is offered by ClampArt, located in New York...
Silver Gelatin
Price Upon Request
Theoline, Pier 11, East River, NY
By Berenice Abbott, 1898-1991
Located in New York, NY
Signed by the photographer.
Silver Gelatin
Ted Higby at Skyline Rodeo, 1928
By Lora Webb Nichols
Located in New York, NY
Listing includes framing with UV plexiglas, free shipping and a 14 day return policy. Ted Higby at Skyline Rodeo, 1928 15 x 12 inch gelatin silver print Image Size: 14 x 8.5 inches Frame size: 22.5 x 17.5 x 2 inches Edition of 15 Lora Webb Nichols was born in 1883 and grew up in the small mining town of Encampment, Wyoming. At the age of 16 Lora received her first camera and from that moment and for the next few decades she produced work that is both stunning in its singular voice and revealing in the world it opens up for us. At first Nichols photographed her family, friends, and the landscape around Encampment, but when the town experienced a copper mining boom Nichols expanded her scope to become a photographer for hire shooting portraits and industrial photographs. When the boom collapsed, Nichols took the risk of opening her own business in Encampment - The Rocky Mountain Studio - which opened in 1925. The studio ran for ten years, accumulating 24,000 negatives that illustrate the lives and environment of the people living in and around the town while creating a distinctive and surprising body of work. If one was to attempt an analogy – Nichols’ pictures fit somewhere between Lartigue and Lange - joyful and generous while objectively intimate. In particular what seems to distinguish Nichols’ work is the way she sees the world from a female perspective. As Vince Aletti...
Silver Gelatin
$5,000
H 11 in W 14 in
Eve Babitz and Marcel Duchamp playing chess during Duchamp's Pasadena Art Museum
By Julian Wasser
Located in New York, NY
Listing is for an unframed print and includes free shipping to the continental US and 14-day return policy. Julian Wasser Eve Babitz and Marcel Duchamp pl...
Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin
Joan and Quintana Roo (Frame 27a.)
By Julian Wasser
Located in New York, NY
Listing includes free shipping for unframed prints and a 14 day return policy. Joan Didion by Julian Wasser 20 x 16 inch gelatin silver print Edition 3 of 15 Signed on verso by Julian Wasser *Please inquire for international shipments. Quotes will be provided at cost via FedEx. Description - Julian Wasser started his career in photography in the Washington DC bureau of the Associated Press where he met and accompanied the famous news photographer Weegee – who would become a lasting influence on him. In the mid-60s Wasser moved to Los Angeles as a contract photographer for TIME, LIFE, and FORTUNE magazines and becoming internationally known as the go to guy for getting candid but memorably composed photographs. (His iconic images of Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston; Marcel Duchamp and Eve Babitz; and a young Jodie Foster are already classics.) In 1968 TIME Magazine assigned Wasser to go to the home of the young writer Joan Didion whose book Slouching Towards Bethlehem was becoming a literary sensation. “I’d read her fiction,” said Wasser. “and she didn’t miss a thing. She was such a heavyweight person.” Wasser shot Didion at her rented house on Franklin Avenue in Hollywood, where she lived with her husband, the writer John Gregory Dunne, and their daughter, Quintana Roo. “It was a nice, cozy house,” Wasser remembers. “And she was a very easy person to talk to...
Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin
Untitled Portrait
By Seydou Keïta
Located in New York, NY
Listing includes framing with UV Plexi ($900 value), free shipping, and a 14-day return policy. Seydou Keïta Untitled Portrait, 1952 - 1955 (02158) 23...
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin
Henry Grossman, Bobby Kennedy, Election campaign, 1968
By Henry Grossman
Located in Cologne, DE
Henry Grossman, Bobby Kennedy (Robert Francis Kennedy (1925–1968)), Election campaign, 1968, Vintage
Silver Gelatin
Rome - Via Appia 1954
By Erich Andres
Located in Cologne, DE
Silver Gelatine Print by Erich Andres, ca 1950. Andres was born 1905 in Germany and passed away 1992. He started his career as a photographer in 1920. He was one of the first photogr...
Silver Gelatin
Fern Spring, Dusk, Yosemite
By Ansel Adams
Located in Pacific Grove, CA
This silver gelatin print with exemplary provenance is unsigned but bears several stamps from the artist's family on the back of the mount, including the authentication stamp of Adam...
Silver Gelatin
$600
H 10 in W 8 in D 0.07 in
BRUCE BELLAS 1950 VINTAGE MALE NUDE BEEFCAKE PHOTOGRAPH OF JERRY SULLIVAN
By Bruce Bellas / Bruce of Los Angeles
Located in Glenford, NY
Bruce Bellas • Bruce of Los Angeles • photograph of model Jerry Sullivan in his Los Angeles studio in 1950. Photo is Original Vintage Gelatin S...
Silver Gelatin
$875
H 10 in W 8 in D 0.07 in
DOUGLAS JULEFF Vintage 1950s Photograph of "Beefcake" model GENE STAGGS #2
Located in Glenford, NY
Rare early 1950s Original Vintage Gelatin Silver Photograph by DOUGLAS JULEFF - also known as DOUG OF DETROIT - of bodybuilder and model GENE STAGGS. This is #2 of two images of Stag...
Silver Gelatin
$600
H 10 in W 8 in D 0.07 in
LON OF NY ALONZO HANAGAN RARE 1940 VINTAGE MALE NUDE PHOTOGRAPH JACK DEAL
Located in Glenford, NY
Alonzo Hanagan, Lon of New York, Original Vintage Nude Photograph of Jack Deal at Rockaway Beach, circa 1940. Alonzo James Hanagan (1911–1999), working under the pseudonym "Lon of ...
Silver Gelatin
$1,634
H 24 in W 20 in
Liz Hurley - Celebrity Photography Print (Limited Edition of 25) -- 20 x 24 In.
By John Stoddart 1
Located in New York, NY
Elizabeth Hurley photographed by British celebrity and fashion photographer John Stoddart. This risqué iconic black and white photograph expresses her incredible figure, capturing th...
Silver Gelatin
$1,150
H 20.15 in W 23.75 in D 1 in
Mission San Xavier Del Bac, Tucson Arizona
By Huntington Witherill
Located in San Francisco, CA
This Photograph titled "Mission San Xavier Del Bac, Tucson Arizona" is a gelatin silver print by noted American photographer Huntington Witherill, born ...
Silver Gelatin
$2,250
H 20.25 in W 26.25 in D 1 in
Myron Wood 1967 South Park Colorado Sheep Storm Vintage Gelatin Silver Photo
By Myron Wood
Located in Denver, CO
A powerful vintage gelatin silver photograph by acclaimed American photographer Myron Wood (1921–1999), titled "Sheep, Storm, South Park, Colorado," created in 1967. One of Wood's mo...
Photographic Film
$4,768
H 30 in W 20 in
Catherine Zeta-Jones (Limited Edition of 25) - Celebrity Photography
By John Stoddart 1
Located in New York, NY
This 1991 fine art print features Catherine Zeta-Jones when she was a TV actress in Britain and aspiring to be a Hollywood Star. Her success in The Darling Buds of May (English comed...
Silver Gelatin
$6,812
H 40 in W 30 in
Actress Gina Bellman (Limited Edition of 25) - 30x40 In - Celebrity Photography
By John Stoddart 1
Located in New York, NY
This iconic 1989 photograph features actress Gina Bellman posing on top of a column, accompanied by two monkeys. It was shot by celebrity and fashion phot...
Silver Gelatin
Pennsylvania Station Interior Study July 14th
By Berenice Abbott, 1898-1991
Located in Carmel, CA
Incredible important historic photograph by one of the most famous women photographers. Excellent condition been framed since purchased. Signed in Pencil on Lower Right Recto Mat Dry...
Silver Gelatin
Sold
H 19.25 in W 15.125 in
Night View, New York (aka New York at Night)
By Berenice Abbott, 1898-1991
Located in Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA
Berenice Abbott learned photography from the artist Man Ray when she was his studio assistant in Paris in 1923-1925. It was in Paris where Man Ray introduced her to the work of Eugèn...
Silver Gelatin
Fulton Street Market, Manhattan Skyline
By Berenice Abbott, 1898-1991
Located in New York, NY
8 x 10 inch vintage gelatin silver print Artist stamps and pencil notations on verso
Silver Gelatin
Herald Square, 34th Street
By Berenice Abbott, 1898-1991
Located in New York, NY
15 x 19.5 inch gelatin silver print, printed circa 1980 Signed and editioned on mount recto #21/60
Silver Gelatin
Atget
By Berenice Abbott, 1898-1991
Located in Denton, TX
Signed.
Silver Gelatin
Designer's Window, Bleecker Street
By Berenice Abbott, 1898-1991
Located in Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA
Signed on back of print with artist's stamp. Printed in the 1950's.
Silver Gelatin