Berenice Abbott Photography
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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20th Century Berenice Abbott Photography
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1930s Berenice Abbott Photography
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1940s Berenice Abbott Photography
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Artists Similar to Berenice Abbott
- 1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022Berenice Abbott was an American photographer known for her portrait and documentary photographs. Her style of photography can be described as realist or straight, capturing an accurate and honest observation of her subjects as they existed in a specific time or place. Abbott’s photographs displayed precise detail and definition of materials, surfaces and textures. Find a selection of Berenice Abbott photographs on 1stDibs.
- When did Berenice Abbott retire?1 Answer1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022Noted photographer Berenice Abbott had no official retirement, but her work tapered off after she moved to Maine in the late 1960s. She was able to live off the rise in popularity of her prior works in the 1970s and basically lived a small-town existence until her death in 1991. Shop a selection of Berenice Abbott pieces from some of the world’s top art dealers on 1stDibs.