Berenice Abbott American, 1898-1991

Bernice Abbott (1898-1991) was a pioneering documentary photographer. Abbott is widley recognized for her series, Changing New York, which captured the architecture and shifting social landscape of the city during the Great Depression. After a breif stint at Ohio State University Abbott set her sights on New York City, moving to Greenwich Village. She became intrested in sculpture and traveled to Europe to study art in both Paris and Berlin. Her introduction to photography came when famed surrealest, Man Ray, hired Abbott on as a darkroom assistant in 1923. Returning to New York again in 1929, Abbott began documenting the city in the manner of Eugène Atget, her greatest influence. After her succsess during the 1930s Bernice Abbott settled in Maine. Today, Abbott's photographs are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, among others.