Berenice Abbott was one of American photographer who was known for black-and-white photography of New York City architecture and urban design of the 1930s. Abbott is remembered as one of the most independent, determined and respected photographers of the twentieth century. She was born in Ohio in 1898. She had a lonely and unhappy childhood. However, she contributed her strong characteristics of self-reliance, determination and independence to her unfortunate childhood experience into her work. She studied journalism at Ohio State University in 1917 but her friend Sue Jenkins persuaded Abbott to move to New York in 1918 where she became interested in sculpture. At first, she was not interested in photography but later in life, when she moved to Paris to study sculpture, she was introduced photography by becoming a darkroom assistant to one of her friend that she met in New York.
Abbott focused a lot of her photography in New York’s architecture. Some photographs contained people in her photographs but it always showed architecture of New York. Her photographs were known for black-and-white photographs. From observing her photographs, her photographs are very well balanced. The black-and-white makes the photographs very classic. Abbott captured many of historic building of New York. The historic building and classic feel goes very well together in her photographs. As a New York resident, it is amusing to see how much New York City has changed from 1930s.
