- Hardcover: 400 pages
- Publisher: New Press; Reissue edition (Oct 27 1997)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1565843770
- ISBN-13: 978-1565843776
- Product Dimensions: 31.4 x 23.9 x 3.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 2.1 Kg
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#102,615 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #38 in Books > Arts & Photography > Photography > Architectural
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Library Journal
To celebrate the centennial of Abbott's birth, the author has curated this show comprising the Museum of the City of New York's collection of 200 of the 307 prints that Abbott made between 1935 and 1939 in New York City with the support of the Works Progress Administration. Organized in eight geographical sections (e.g., Lower East Side, Greenwich Village, and Outer Boroughs), Abbott's views of New York contribute greatly to the documentation of the social, commercial, and architectural history of the city. Eugene Atget's approach to documenting cities with sparsely populated views of streets and shop fronts clearly shaped Abbott's own work in documenting New York City. Yochelson lays out such facts and analyses in an exceptionally well-written and carefully researched text that provides the most complete story to date of Abbott's life, artistic influences, and photographic contributions. The endnotes on each photograph are detailed and will be useful to photographers and city historians alike. Highly recommended for large academic and public libraries and for collections that specialize in the history of photography or New York City.?Kathleen Collins, Bank of America Archives, San Francisco
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
In 1935 Abbott (18981991), already an experienced documentary photographer, set out with a bulky view camera to capture Manhattan's streets and building facades, to provide a thorough record of how the city looked at one point in time. Over the course of four years she covered the entire city, working neighborhood by neighborhood, and produced some 400 photographs, most of them unpublished until now. Yochelson, a consultant for the Museum of the City of New York, which holds the collection, has done a careful job of assembling and annotating the work. The 420 photographs crisply reproduced here are of extraordinary value to anyone wanting a detailed portrait of the city during the Depression. Abbott's photographs of tenements and skyscrapers, of street scenes and housefronts, of tiny backstreet shops and elegant department stores, of newstands, el stations, piers, factories, and office buildings are fascinating. Many are also powerful works of art, such as a shot of sunlight streaming through elevated tracks onto an otherwise shadowy street of shops, or her beautifuly composed depictions of neighborhood storefronts. An elegant, eminently browsable record of Manhattan's cityscapes, including many now entirely vanished. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the Finest Collections of New York City Photographs,
By Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 112,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (#1 HALL OF FAME)
This review is from: Berenice Abbott: Changing New York (Paperback)
This book is a great choice for those who love great photography, Berenice Abbott fans, those who are interested in the history of New York in the 1930s, and those who would like to enjoy a little nostalgia about their formative years in that magnificent city. Berenice Abbott returned from 8 years in Europe at age 30 in January 1929, planning on a short stay. Instead, she was transfixed by the changes in the New York City scene, and became obsessed by the opportunity to capture it photographically. For the next 10 years this was her focus. During the depths of the Depression, she was able to obtain a grant from the WPA to work with the Museum of the City of New York to create an exhaustive photographic essay of the city. This book contains the finest flowers of that remarkable assignment in 305 black and white photographs, a biographical essay about Abbott, maps of where the photographs were taken, and extensive notes on the locations and the photographic perspectives used. The biographical essay was made more interesting by describing Abbott's strenuous financial and promotional efforts to support Atget's collection, while staving off poverty herself. The many fights over how to do the New York City project also make good reading as background for the images. Independent by nature, that quality of Abbott's probably improved the result in this case. The presentation of the images is organized around the different geographical sections of Manhattan and the other boroughs, especially Brooklyn. As a result, you get a sense of neighborhoods as well as of individual images and locations. As someone who learned photography from Man Ray, Abbott is a good student of abstract methods, and she subtly captures the surreal and the predominant design feeling contained in these subjects. Her works that are most like Man Ray's were the ones that most attracted me. I am very impressed by the encyclopedic knowledge that she must have developed of New York City to locate so many rewarding sights for us to consider. My only quibble about the book was that in some sections the reproduction was too dark, so that details were unnecessarily lost that would have been of interest. But the page sizes were good for the images being presented, the design is solid, and the overall print quality was good. My favorite images in the book were: Immigration Building, Ellis Island Theoline, Pier 11, East River Tugboats, Pier 11, East River City Arabesque Brooklyn Bridge with Pier 21, Pennsylvania Railroad Henry Street Manhattan Bridge Gunsmith Hot Dog Stand Wrought Iron Ornament Doorway, 204 West 13th Street Fifth Avenue Theatre, Orchestra, Boxes, First and Second Balconies Father Duffy [wrapped like a Christo], Times Square Gramercy Park West, Nos. 3-4 J.P. Morgan House Murray Hill Hotel, Spiral Billie's Bar Wheelock House Watuppa, from Brooklyn Waterfront Even though your photography may not be as good as you like, there is a lot of human value in making such a pictoral history of where you live. You can use this volume to get ideas for compositions and shooting angles. In this way, you can deepen your appreciation for Abbott's work. Capture the important truths around you for all to see!
5.0 out of 5 stars
An amazing look at New York just before World War II,
This review is from: Berenice Abbott: Changing New York (Paperback)
Granted this is an expensive book (or the hardback edition is), but to anyone interested in what New York City looked like in the latter half of the 30's, or fans of Abbott's work, or of WPA photography, it's well worth it. You'll notice details here that you missed in the Dover reprint "New York in the Thirties" and there are many more photos here as well, quite a few seeing publication for the first time. There's loads of ancillary information too, including maps that indicate exactly where in New York each photo was taken. This book is a treasurehouse.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Like a porthole view of old New York,
By A Customer
This review is from: Berenice Abbott: Changing New York (Hardcover)
This book is a fascinating pictorial history of New York during the '30s as shown through the beautiful duotone plates that Bernice Abbott took between 1935-1939. These pictures were taken as part of the Work's Progress Administration sponsorship of the arts. The clarity of the pictures combined with the excellent reproduction in the book makes this a must have for anyone who wants to see exactly what New York was like right after the Depression and before the war. It is like stepping back in time and seeing life as it was. The high contrast of the plates brings out tremendous details and these pictures beg for closer examination to really pick up the feel of the era - the signs in the windows for 10 cent haircuts or the hardware store with all of the goods splayed out on the street with handmade signs showing the prices. All of this adds to the visual wonder of this book. This book is far more than a coffee table edition. It is a reference unlike any other about New York.
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