Great Black and White Photographers Part 2

Berenice Abbott was born on July 17, 1898 in Springfield, Ohio and was raised by her divorced mother. She was interested in journalism at first, but soon became interested in theater and sculpture. She attended Ohio State University but left in 1918.

In 1929, she went to New York City and immediately saw its photographic potential. She went back to her studio in Paris and moved to New York that September. She worked there independently for 6 years and supported herself with commercial work. She had assistants help her in both the field of photography and the office. In 1939, she had produced 305 photographs that were deposited at the Museum of the City of New York.

Abbott loved to take photos of things like the diverse people of the city, the places they live, work and play and their daily activities.

In 1935, Abbott moved into a Greenwich Village loft and lived with art critic Elizabeth McCausland who contributed the captions for the book of Abbott's photographs that was published in 1939. In 1949, her photography book was published by Harper & Brothers.

Abbott died on December 9, 1991 of congested heart failure at the age of 93. Her work will forever document the early 1900s New York City.