Berenice Abbott | American, 1898 - 1991
Berenice Abbott learned photography in the 1920s in Paris as a studio assistant to fellow American expatriate Man Ray. She soon opened her own portrait studio, where she photographed artists and intellectuals living in Paris, including the writer James Joyce and photographer Eugène Atget. After Atget's death, Abbott was instrumental in promoting his work by preserving his prints and negatives and arranging for publications and exhibitions of his photographs in the United States.
Upon Abbott's return to the United States she became an active participant in the New York photographic community. She was a member of the Photo League, she taught photography at the New School for Social Research in New York, (a position she held until 1958) and published technical booklets on the use of the view camera. Concurrent with her teaching she photographed the architectural landscape of New York City, which resulted in the exhibition, Changing New York at the Museum of the City of New York, (1937) and the publication of a book under the same title (1939).
Berenice Abbott learned photography in the 1920s in Paris as a studio assistant to fellow American expatriate Man Ray. She soon opened her own portrait studio, where she photographed artists and intellectuals living in Paris, including the writer James Joyce and photographer Eugène Atget. After Atget's death, Abbott was instrumental in promoting his work by preserving his prints and negatives and arranging for publications and exhibitions of his photographs in the United States.
Upon Abbott's return to the United States she became an active participant in the New York photographic community. She was a member of the Photo League, she taught photography at the New School for Social Research in New York, (a position she held until 1958) and published technical booklets on the use of the view camera. Concurrent with her teaching she photographed the architectural landscape of New York City, which resulted in the exhibition, Changing New York at the Museum of the City of New York, (1937) and the publication of a book under the same title (1939).