Tag: berenice abbott

Berenice Abbott at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Right on the heels of a show of photographer Berenice Abbott’s Greenwich Village portraits and urban landscapes at Chelsea’s Marlborough Gallery, fans of the iconic early 20th century New York City chronicler can enjoy the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s new exhibition of images from Abbott’s 1929 album shot around town.  Freshly back from an eight year-long stay in Paris where she pivoted to photography and established her own successful studio, Abbott arrived in New York and enthusiastically fell to documenting the thriving city as she found it.  Also included in the Met’s show are works by Abbott’s contemporaries and her ‘Changing New York’ series from ’35-’39, including this view of a 9th Ave Automat. (On view on the Upper East Side through Sept 4th).

Berenice Abbott, Automat, 877 Ninth Avenue, gelatin silver print, 1936.

Berenice Abbott at Howard Greenberg Gallery

As old buildings come down and new luxury condos go up along the High Line in Chelsea, an exhibition of American photographer Berenice Abbott’s WPA-sponsored ‘Changing New York’ photos from the 30s at Howard Greenberg Gallery puts the transformation in the context of the city’s constant evolution. This picture memorializes a modest business now replaced by the residential towers of Peter Cooper Village at the other (east) end of 23rd Street. (In the 57th Street area, through April 12th).

Berenice Abbott, Henry Maurer, 420-422 East 23rd Street, looking southeast, Manhattan, June 14, 1938, gelatin silver print; printed c. 1938, 7 5/8 x 9 5/8 inches.