Berenice Abbott

July 17, 1898- December 9, 1991

Background Information• Born and Grew up in Ohio• Went to Europe in 1921,

and started photography.• 1935 she was the

supervisor for the Changing New York project

• She wanted to show the interaction of urban life between the diverse people of the city, the places they live and work, play and their daily activities.

• Later in her life, 1958 she photographed for physic textbooks.

Under the El at the Battery, New York

Like every other means of expression, photography, if it is to be utterly honest and direct, should be related to the

life of the times – the pulse of today.

Nightview, New York, 1932.

Imagine a world without photography,

one could only imagine

Tri-Boro Barber School, 264 Bowery

Photography can only

represent the present. Once photographed,

the subject becomes part of the past.

1935 - Greyhound and Penn Station, New York

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. -

Hot Dog Stand, West St. and North Moore, Manhattan

I didn't decide to be a

photographer; I just

happened to fall into it

Repair Shop

Resources

http://www.photoquotes.com/ShowQuotes.aspx?id=8&name=Abbott,Berenice

http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/spe/art/photo/abbottex/abbott.html

http://www.artsmia.org/get-the-picture/abbott/