U.S.S. 'Illinois' and Wharf, Armory on Naval Reserves, West 135th Street Pier, Manhattan, 1937

A freighter’s imposing hulk is the subject of the photograph U.S.S. Illinois and Wharf, Armory on Naval Reserves, West 135th Street Pier, Manhattan, 1937. In the foreground, three men standing in different positions on a pier covered with wooden beams face or turn their backs to the camera.

Its careful construction attests to Abbott's aesthetic view of her subjects, including the most banal, across 1930s New York in the throes of urban and social change. Her instantaneous shots grouped together in the vast "Changing New York" project starting in 1935 are not only documentary in intent but also, as in the example, have a deep aesthetic dimension.

U.S.S. Illinois and Wharf, Armory on Naval Reserves, West 135th Street Pier, Manhattan, 1937 was presented for the first time by the Pinault Collection at the 2019 "Luogo e Segni" ("Place and Signs") show at the Punta della Dogana in Venice.