Berenice Abbott - Masters Of Photography

Berenice Abbott has said of photography, "If it is to be utterly honest and direct, it should be related to the pulse of the times--the pulse of today." In pioneering scientific images and photographs of the fast-changing landscape, Abbott captured the tempo of her times in work of enduring significance. While living in Paris during the 1920's, Abbott began working as a darkroom assistant in Man Ray's portrait business. Soon she was independent and was able to establish her own studio. Her portraits of well-known Parisian figures were critically acclaimed. Returning from France in 1929, Abbott began her study of New York's rapidly changing architectural profile. She felt it was urgent that it be preserved at least photographically. She began her famed Changing New York series, which shows the heart of old New York, documents midtown Manhattan springing up, and memorializes landmarks such as the George Washington Bridge and Trinity Church. Between the late 1940's and the early 1960's, Abbott completed an extraordinary body of work depicting complex scientific phenomena. In uniquely informative and elegant photographs, many of which were only possible after inventing new equipment necessary to make the pictures, she shared the phenomena of science in a way understandable to everyone. During the 1950's, Abbott made a group of photographs while traveling along Route 1 through the rural areas from Florida to Maine, where she later settled. As her last project, Abbot portrayed the native people of Maine, from a kindred point of view, without pretense. In this selection of her wide-ranging work, Aperture acknowledges the contribution BereniceAbbott has made to photography.