Object Details
Artist
Berenice Abbott, born Springfield, OH 1898-died Monson, ME 1991
Exhibition Label
Berenice Abbott returned home in 1929 after nearly eight years abroad and found herself fascinated by the rapid growth of New York City. She saw the city as bristling with new buildings and structures that seem to her as solid and as permanent as a mountain range. Aiming to capture “the past jostling the present,” Abbott spent the next five years on a project she called Changing New York.
In Brooklyn Bridge, Water and Dock Streets, Brooklyn, Abbott presented a century of history in a single image. The Brooklyn Bridge, once a marvel of modern engineering, seems dark and heavy compared with the skeletal structure beneath it. The construction site at center suggests the never-ending cycle of death and regeneration. And the Manhattan skyline, veiled and weightless, hangs just out of reach, its shape accommodating the ambitious spirit of American modernism.
A Democracy of Images: Photographs from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2013
Credit Line
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the Evander Childs High School, Bronx, New York through the General Services Administration
Date
1936
Object number
1975.83.10
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Type
Photography-Photoprint
Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
sheet: 18 x 14 3/8 in. (45.7 x 36.6 cm.)
See more items in
Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
Department
Graphic Arts
Data Source
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Topic
Cityscape\New York\Brooklyn
Cityscape\New York\New York
Architecture\bridge\Brooklyn Bridge
Cityscape\street\Dock Street
Cityscape\street\Water Street
Architecture\industry
New Deal\Works Progress Administration, Federal Art Project\New York
Link to Original Record
Record ID
saam_1975.83.10