BERENICE ABBOTT (1898–1991)

View of Exchange Place from Broadway, New York, 1934

Details

BERENICE ABBOTT (1898–1991)
View of Exchange Place from Broadway, New York, 1934
gelatin silver print, printed 1936–1939
stamped photographer's '50 commerce st.' credit with title in pencil (verso)
image/sheet: 9 1/4 x 2 3/8 in. (23.4 x 6 cm.)

Provenance

Acquired directly from the artist by photographer Arthur Siegel (1913–1978), 1936–1939;
Edwynn Houk Gallery, Chicago;
acquired from the above by the present owner, 1985.

Literature

Muriel Rukeyser and David Vestal, Berenice Abbott: Photographs, Horizon Press, New York, 1970, p. 121.
Hank O’Neal and Berenice Abbott, Berenice Abbott: American Photographer, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1982, p. 130.
Cheryl Finley, Berenice Abbott, Commerce Graphics Ltd, Inc., New Jersey, 1988, n.p.
Hank O'Neal, Berenice Abbott: New York, Vol. 2., Steidl, Göttingen, 2008, p. 50.

Exhibited

Ithaca, New York, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, An American Portrait: Photographs from the Collection of Diann and Thomas Mann, April 1–June 12, 1994, no. 54.

Lot Essay

This photograph has always interested me; it was taken from Broadway, on about the tenth floor of a building that placed me as near as possible to looking straight down the street. I had devised a very low tripod that I used for shooting out of windows; it had adjustable legs and could be used on windowsills, holding my large Century Universal securely. It was used here. –Berenice Abbott

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