Berenice Abbott

Berenice Abbott began her artistic career in New York, Berlin and Paris where she worked as Man Ray's assistant. At his side, she discovered photography, then established herself as a freelance photographer in 1926 and produced portraits of famous artists and writers.

Upon her return to New York in 1929, Berenice Abbott initiated her historic project Changing New York. Fascinated by the city's rapid metamorphosis, she decided to "do for New York what Atget had done for Paris," i.e., meticulously document a city in transformation.

Produced in the 1950s for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, the Documenting Science project illustrates the physical principles of mechanics and light.

Born in 1898 in Springfield, Ohio, USA

Died in 1991 in Monson, Maine, USA

1898

Birth of Berenice Abbott in Springfield, Ohio, on 17 July.

1917

Studies to be a journalist at Ohio State University.

1918

Leaves for New York City and moves in artistic circles.

1921

Sails to Europe. Studies sculpture in Paris and Berlin and frequents the Surrealist avant-garde.

1923

Hired by Man Ray in his Parisian portrait studio. In addition to making prints, starts to take her own portraits.

1926

Opens her own studio. Photographs the bourgeoisie and artists. First exhibition at the gallery Au Sacre du Printemps. Art critics take note. Meets Euge?ne Atget and buys several prints.

1928

Buys part of the estate of Atget, who died in 1927. Exhibits at the Salon de l'Escalier, a manifesto against Pictorialism.

1929

Shows in two German modernist exhibitions: "Fotografie der Gegenwart" (Essen) and "Film und Foto" (Stuttgart).
Returns to New York City. Opens a portrait studio and starts photographing the City.

1930

Exhibits at the Weyhe Gallery. Publishes the book Atget photographe de Paris. Takes part in "Photography" at Harvard University, the first American show to break with tradition and also with the circle of Alfred Stieglitz.

1931

Seeks institutions to finance her big project on New York City.

1932

Exhibitions: "Photographs of New York by New York Photographers", "Photographs by Berenice Abbott" and "Exhibition of Portrait Photography" at the Julien Levy Gallery and "Murals by American Painters and Photographers" at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

1934?35

Photographs Victorian architecture in East Coast cities. Exhibitions: "American Cities Before the Civil War" (Yale University) and "The Architecture of Henry Hobson Richardson and His Times" (MoMA).

1934

Exhibits photographs about New York City at the Museum of the City of New York with the hope of finding sponsors for her project.

1935

Changing New York is supported by the Federal Art Project, a government programme to aid artists. Abbott takes over 300 photographs.

1935-58

Teaches photography at the New School for Social Research.

1937

Exhibition of images of New York City at the Museum of the City of New York.

1939

Publication of the book Changing New York.

1941

Publication of Guide to Better Photography.