Talman Street, between Jay and Bridge Streets, Brooklyn, NY, May 22nd 1931

A black and white frontal view of a street fills the entire width of Talman Street, Between Jay and Bridge Streets, Brooklyn, NY, May 22, 1931. In this small-scale cityscape, people go about their business as if indifferent to the camera’s presence.

American photographer Berenice Abbott took this picture two years after returning to New York. It foreshadows her vast "Changing New York" project, which she uninterruptedly worked on from 1935 to 1939 under the aegis of the Federal Art Project. Aiming to make the most complete physical and social portrait of New York possible, she ventured into different neighbourhoods to photograph their residents’ daily lives and urban setting.

Talman Street, Between Jay and Bridge Streets, Brooklyn, NY, May 22, 1931 was first presented by the Pinault Collection at the "Luogo e Segni" ("Place and Signs") exhibition at the Punta della Dogana in Venice in 2019.