Feb 04, 2021 - Sale 2557

Sale 2557 - Lot 86

Price Realized: $ 7,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000

BERENICE ABBOTT (1898-1991)


Manhattan Bridge (looking up).
Silver contact print, the image measuring 254x203.2 mm; 10x8 inches, with Abbot's Federal Art Project "Changing New York" hand stamp, her Commerce St. hand stamp, and the title, negative number, and date, in pencil, in an unknown hand, on verso. 1936.

Berenice Abbott's multi-year documentary project photographing New York City's built environment and its material culture remains one of the most enduring and influential bodies of work from the 20th century. Though she began the project in 1929, it wasn't until 1935 that Abbott was accepted by the WPA Federal Art Project, working as a 'supervisor' for the government program meant to employ artists and other related workers. The project resulted in a 1939 traveling exhibition and book called Changing New York, the latter of which reproduced 97 photographs and included text by Elizabeth McCausland.