Berenice Abbott (American, 1898–1991). Page from "New York Album," 1929–30. Gelatin silver prints, 10 x 13 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Emanuel Gerard, 1984 (1984.1097.9–.18). © Berenice Abbott / Commerce Graphics Ltd. Inc.
Berenice Abbott (American, 1898–1991). Page from "New York Album," 1929–30. Gelatin silver prints, 10 x 13 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Emanuel Gerard, 1984 (1984.1097.9–.18). © Berenice Abbott / Commerce Graphics Ltd. Inc. 
TITLE_NAME :
Berenice Abbott’s New York Album, 1929

02/03/2023 - 04/09/2023

The Met Fifth Avenue 
1000 Fifth Avenue 
 
NY 10028 New York

www.metmuseum.org/   

 
In January 1929, after eight years in Europe, the American photographer Berenice Abbott (1898–1991) boarded an ocean liner to New York City for what was meant to be a short visit. Upon arrival, she found the city transformed and ripe with photographic potential. With a handheld camera, Abbott traversed the city, photographing its skyscrapers, bridges, elevated trains, and neighborhood street life. She pasted these “tiny photographic notes” into a standard black-page album, arranging them by subject and locale.

Consisting of 266 small black-and-white prints arranged on thirty-two pages, Abbott’s New York album marks a key turning point in her career—from her portrait work in Paris to the urban documentation that culminated in her federally funded project, Changing New York (1935–39). Berenice Abbott’s New York Album, 1929 presents a selection of unbound pages from this unique album, shedding new light on the creative process of one of the great photographic artists of the twentieth century. For context, the exhibition also features views of Paris by Eugène Atget (French, 1857–1957), whose extensive photographic archive Abbott purchased and publicized; views of New York City by her contemporaries Walker Evans, Paul Grotz, and Margaret Bourke-White; and photographs from Changing New York.