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Review: Berenice Abbott’s remarkable life in photography
By ANN LEVIN
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The word gutsy doesn’t
even begin to describe the
great 20th-century photog-
rapher Berenice Abbott. Nor
does brilliant, rebellious,
prickly, cantankerous, inven-
tive or indefatigable. Taken
together, however, they con-
vey something of the spirit
of a woman born in 1898 but
always ahead of her time.
She was a lesbian and
feminist when homosexu-
ality was taboo, deeply inter-
ested in science and technol-
ogy when other artists didn’t
care, and fiercely committed
to documentary realism at
a time when emotion-laden
pictorialism (think Stieglitz
and Steichen) was all the
rage in photography.
Julia Van Haaften,
founding curator of the
New York Public Library’s
photography collection and
author of the Abbott volume
in Aperture’s Masters of
Photography series, attempts
to grapple with Abbott’s life
and legacy in a comprehen-
sive new biography that is
both absorbing and exhaust-
ing.
The introduction kicks
off in late December 1932
with a thrilling description
of Abbott setting up her
camera on a high floor of
the Empire State Building
in New York City to shoot
the glittering cityscape of
midtown at twilight, a view
immortalized in her iconic
“Night View.”
Then Van Haaften circles
back to the beginning: the
troubled childhood in Ohio.
The escape to Greenwich
Village, then Paris. The stint
as darkroom assistant to
photographer Man Ray. The
early success as a portrait
photographer, capturing the
likes of James Joyce and
Jean Cocteau. The prescient
rescue of the prints and
negatives of then-obscure
French photographer Eugene
Atget.
By 1929 Abbott was
eager to return to New York
where, in the midst of the
Depression, she began the
project for which she’s
best known: documenting
the changing face of a city
where buildings were being
torn down almost faster than
she could preserve them on
film.
By the end of the decade
she had turned her attention
to scientific photography,
eventually joining an MIT
project to illustrate sci-
ence course materials. Her
constant quest for better
photographic equipment
and materials led to numer-
ous inventions, including
a monopod and carry-all
jacket, a forerunner of the
multi-pocketed safari vests
that street photographers
COURTESY W. W. NORTON & COMPANY/ASSOCIATED PRESS
This cover image shows “Berenice Abbott” A Life in Photogra-
phy, by Julia Van Haaften.
wear today.
Van Haaften marshaled
a tremendous amount of
research to produce this 487-
page volume, and you some-
times feel she didn’t want
to leave a single moment
of Abbott’s long life — she
died in 1991 — unaccounted
for. Even so, Abbott’s integ-
rity and sense of honor, her
restless and fearless nature,
and her absolute devotion
to telling the truth of her
experience, come through
loud and clear.
Library hosts ‘Women in Leadership’
ASTORIA — The American
Association of University
Women, Astoria Branch,
will present “Women in
Leadership.” Julene West,
Norma Hernandez and
Nayeli Lopez will share
their stories of arriving in
Astoria, finding work, ful-
filling their needs and their
busy lives.
The free program will be
held in the Flag Room of the
Astoria Library 5:30 p.m.
Tuesday, April 17.
West arrived in 1994. She
has lived in Mexico, Guate-
mala and Spain, but found
home in Astoria. Her Span-
ish language skills proved
most useful, and she’ll talk
about bringing people to-
gether around concerns for
a Hispanic organization as
well as her work today.
Hernandez visited Asto-
ria in 2002, fell in love with
the city and moved here
in 2003. She spent years
living in Puerto Rico and
Boston. By 2009, she was
involved with public health
and participated in many
related volunteer roles.
Lopez, a Senior at Asto-
ria High School, will share
her senior project “Latina,”
a four-day leadership camp
at Camp Kiwanilong.