Berenice
Abbott
Berenice
Abbott
Abbott
American, 1898 — 1991
It was when she became Man Ray’s assistant in Paris that Bernice Abbott discovered her vocation for photography. Fascinated by the unique and methodical work of Eugène Atget, which formed her background, Abbott launched her own career in 1930, on her return to the US, with a vast work she entitled “Changing New York”.
For around a decade and with the support of the Federal Art Project, the photographer devoted herself to fixing the shape of the American metropolis then in the grip of social and urban upheavals. Her photographic investigation promotes an aesthetic that should "be documentary as well as artistic", rejecting quaintness in favour of the exhaustive, photographing the facades of old and new buildings without distinction. Not only did her thousands of shots save the memory of places, many of which have disappeared, but they also contributed visually to the construction of the New York myth in the collective imagination.
Berenice Abbott’s work is represented in the Pinault Collection through the acquisition of prints from the series “Changing New York”, collected for the group show “Luogo e Segni” ("Place and Signs") at the Punta della Dogana in Venice in 2019.
For around a decade and with the support of the Federal Art Project, the photographer devoted herself to fixing the shape of the American metropolis then in the grip of social and urban upheavals. Her photographic investigation promotes an aesthetic that should "be documentary as well as artistic", rejecting quaintness in favour of the exhaustive, photographing the facades of old and new buildings without distinction. Not only did her thousands of shots save the memory of places, many of which have disappeared, but they also contributed visually to the construction of the New York myth in the collective imagination.
Berenice Abbott’s work is represented in the Pinault Collection through the acquisition of prints from the series “Changing New York”, collected for the group show “Luogo e Segni” ("Place and Signs") at the Punta della Dogana in Venice in 2019.
