Berenice abbott

Avant-garde artist Berenice Abbott is famous for her shots of New York skyscrapers – but she also developed an all-new kind of scientific photography

Abbott aimed her lens at so many 20th-century subjects that her photographs challenge us to rethink modernity itself.

Berenice Abbott. New York at Night. c. 1933. Gelatin silver print. 12 7/8 × 10 9/16" (32.7 × 26.9 cm). Purchase. 40.1964. © 2024 Estate of Berenice Abbott. Photography

On the symptoms and spread of Newyorkitis.

berenice abbott | Berenice Abbott

“I’m attracted to images of beauty and style, and images that confirm the joy of being alive” tells Peter Fetterman in conversation with Laura Paterson. In the upcoming Peter Fetterman curated photography auction “A Wonderful Life” you will find an incredible collection of great pictures inviting you to linger.

Berenice Abbott. An Industrial Designer's Window, Bleecker Street. 1948. Gelatin silver print. 14 1/2 × 10 7/8" (36.9 × 27.7 cm). Purchase. 88.1959. © 2024 Estate of Berenice Abbott. Photography

Berenice Abbott. Hands of Jean Cocteau. 1927. Gelatin silver print. 6 1/2 × 8 11/16" (16.5 × 22 cm). Purchase. 2.1946. © 2024 Estate of Berenice Abbott. Photography

The photographs in Berenice Abbott’s Paris Portraits 1925-1930 document how international the community of modernists was between the wars, and are evidence of Abbott’s first experiments with lighting, angles, and equipment. The portraits’ sparseness only amplifies the ambition they contain—of both subjects and photographer. One of the pleasures of a great portrait is the unending present exposure it offers us, as if the sitter is just about to reveal something. Abbott’s client list is…