Berenice Abbott: Masters of Photography Series

by Berenice Abbott (Photographer)

Berenice Abbott first established herself in commercial portraiture in Paris and later in New York. Besides creating masterful bodies of work on the changing face of New York, scientific phenomena, Route 1 and Maine, Abbott was an inventor of photographic equipment, a pioneer in the teaching of photographic techniques and the first person to champion the work of the turn-of-the-century French photographer Eugène Atget.

Genres: Photography, Art and Photography, Art

96 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

People know American photographer Berenice Abbott especially for her series of black-and-white portraits of city of New York.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berenic...

Reviews

[Vicky "phenkos"]

I love Berenice Abbott! I discovered her work pretty recently at a Beetles & Huxley exhibition. Julia van Haaften's informative, if a little short, introduction gives a good sense of the photographer as a person. Abbott was American, arrived in Paris in 1921 and entered the circle of Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp. She became Man Ray's sitter and then photographic assistant bringing an aptitude to darkroom work that surprised "them both". She quickly became proficient at photography putting together a portfolio of notable sitters. The book includes portraits of James Joyce and Eugene Atget, but she also photographed Jean Cocteau, Andre Gide and others.

I found Abbott's views on photography very interesting. She insisted on utilising the medium's unique qualities, not attempting to imitate painting or theatre (as van Haaften explains in the Introduction). Included are 41 photographs accompanied by explanatory text. A nice, carefully put together edition further rousing my interest in Abbott, who at the end of her life said "she wanted to be remembered as a self-taught risk-taker" (p. 5). Recommended!

[CD]

Abbott was an early scientific photography as well as a fine landscape and portrait artist. I was first introduced to her from some of her early stop motion and high speed photography as part of my 'formal' photographic education.

Berenice Abbott had to invent many of the strobes and even perspective correction tools I believe to make many of the photographs in this book. Her work with several M.I.T. projects is legendary in some circles.

On a different level there's always an image or two that stand out even in these excellent Aperture series and this work is no different. Her portraits, one in particular of Jean Cocteau and the Edward Hopper 'casual' photo stand out for me as much that she covered such a wide range of subjects from the Dada/Surreal artists to the rigors of modern science.

A fine little book, if not the greatest, in the series.

[Kay ☾]

The photo's in the book were okay. I love photography so there is nothing off limits but the images looked the same as I progressed. . I still skim through this book from time to time.

[Traci]

Love, love, love her photography.

[Pablo]

A small book, but the short introduction and relative handful of pictures is a good primer for a novice photography student like me.

[Hope]

A book of the photographs taken by Berenice Abbott. So many of these pictures were actually breathtaking and amazing, I really enjoyed reading it, especially because it went so quickly, too.