©Berenice Abbott

 

Bernice Abbott (1898- 1991)

            Bernice Abbott was born in Springfield, Ohio, in 1898. Abbott attended Ohio State University, Columbus, for one year before moving to New York in 1918 to study sculpture. New York introduced Abbott to Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray, two of the founders of the Dada Movement. Abbott would later become Man Ray’s assistant in Paris from 1925 to 1929. While printing Man Ray’s photographs Abbott stumbled upon her own photographic talent as a photographer.

            Abbott began having her own solo exhibitions of portrait photography in which she captured personalities associated with the avant-garde art movement. It was only the beginning to her future role as a revolutionary documentary photographer.

            Abbott returned to New York in 1929 where she transitioned from portrait photography to documentary photography. Using the city as her main subject she began to capture the modern transformation of New York’s physical changes. Abbott was particularly intrigued by the changing neighborhoods, the huge skyscrapers replacing low-rise buildings, and the modern décor of it all.

            From 1935 to 1939 Abbott became a part of the Federal Works Project Administration creating documentary photographs of the city. These dynamic, dramatic angled photographs were later published in a book titled, Changing New York.  During the 1940’s Abbott became a picture editor for Science Illustrated. She continued this career on through the 1960’s.  In 1966 she moved to Maine where she continued photographing scientific subjects until her death in 1991.