Berenice abbott biography summary organizer

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This arrangement of light beams enables the photograph to represent the concept of wave-particle duality - a famously counterintuitive property." This concept in quantum mechanics expresses the possibility that particles and waves do overlap and that light can be observed as a particle as well as a wave. Berenice connected with English and American ex-patriates as well, among them was the art patron Peggy Guggenheim.

This experience led her to photography, and in 1926 she established herself as an independent photographer whose portraits of well-known artists and writers rivaled those of Man Ray in excellence and renown. Yet, this image appears in Abbott's scrapbook that she used to sketch out her ideas of how to photograph New York's urban landscape.

The photo-historian Gaëlle Morel contends that, "through her compositions, Abbott succeeded in formulating a genuine aesthetic, with its rejection of commercial conventions. His dedication to cataloging the old Paris resonated with her, and she became instrumental in preserving and promoting Atget’s legacy.

Automat, 977 Eighth Avenue, Manhattan (1936) by Berenice Abbott; Berenice Abbott, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Mature and Late Period

Abbott spent the latter part of her life in Maine, having moved there after purchasing a home.

She worked with the notion that a photograph should capture the essence of the modern world, often featuring the emerging skyscrapers and changing streetscapes of New York. She sent prints of his photographs along with her own works to various modernist exhibitions. The rift between Abbott and Man Ray was further exacerbated when Peggy Guggenheim requested to have her portrait taken by Abbott rather than Man Ray.

Yet, to be photographed by either Abbott or Man Ray in the 1920s "meant you rated as somebody." Abbott soon left to set up her own Paris studio in 1926 with financial assistance from Peggy Guggenheim. She believed her status as a newly returned expatriate extended her special insight into the city.

Having sold a half interest in her Atget collection to Julien Levy in 1930, Abbott was able to buy a large format camera that became her standard equipment for documenting New York.

She once stated, "New York is the face of the modern city, bred of industrial centralization. His straight documentary style influenced her own approach to photographing New York City and the American scene in the Midwest and on the East coast. The choice of materials and her deliberate manipulation of them was crucial to the final image outcome, impacting aspects from texture to depth, emphasizing the composition and aesthetic qualities of her subjects.

Lafayette Hotel, University Place and 9th Street, New York City (1937) by Berenice Abbott; Berenice Abbott, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Accomplishments

Berenice Abbott is renowned for her significant contributions to photography during the 20th century.

Bernice soon adopted the French version of her name "Berenice" and set about meeting artists and writers, such as Nina Hamnett, Ossip Zadkine, and Constantin Brâncuși, who encouraged her studies of sculpture. Building on from her art history knowledge that began in high school, art has always been a particular area of fascination for her.

Her photographs captured scenes of everyday American life, charting the differences in geography and backgrounds that characterized the United States as a changing country.

Vintage gelatin silver print - Collection of Syracuse University Art Collection, Syracuse, New York