Gambetta Snuff Shop, Manhattan, January 26, 1938
Silver print
25.3 x 20.2 cm (9 15/16 x 7 15/16 in.)
The subject of Gambetta Snuff Shop, Manhattan, January 26, 1938 is a rundown, eye-catching statue of a man in a kilt. The ghostly face of the shopkeeper peering out of the adjacent window is nearly invisible.
Deeply marked by the photographs of Eugène Atget, which she had seen during her long stay in Paris, Berenice Abbott began to build up a vast body of photographs with similar ambitions on her return to New York. Aiming to draw a comprehensive documentary and artistic portrait of the burgeoning American metropolis, she shot streets, façades, windows and interiors.
Gambetta Snuff Shop, Manhattan, January 26, 1938 was exhibited for the first time by the Pinault Collection at the 2019 show "Luogo e Segni" ("Place and Signs") at the Punta della Dogana in Venice.
