Berenice Abbott: "Changing New York"

To celebrate the centennial of Abbott´s birth, the author has curated this show comprising the Museum of the City of New York´s collection of 200 of the 307 prints that Abbott made between 1935 and 1939 in New York City with the support of the Works Progress Administration. Organized in eight geographical sections (e.g., Lower East Side, Greenwich Village, and Outer Boroughs), Abbott´s views of New York contribute greatly to the documentation of the social, commercial, and architectural history of the city. Eugene Atget´s approach to documenting cities with sparsely populated views of streets and shop fronts clearly shaped Abbott´s own work in documenting New York City. Yochelson lays out such facts and analyses in an exceptionally well-written and carefully researched text that provides the most complete story to date of Abbott´s life, artistic influences, and photographic contributions. The endnotes on each photograph are detailed and will be useful to photographers and city historians alike. Highly recommended for large academic and public libraries and for collections that specialize in the history of photography or New York City.?Kathleen Collins, Bank of America Archives, San Francisco.