1852–1934 · United States · Photographer
Gertrude Kasebier
Soft-focus Pictorialist portraits of mothers, children and sitters at rest.
The Manger, 1899Source: Wikipedia
PHOTOGRAPHER · 1898–1991 · UNITED STATES
Berenice Abbott
Crisp large-format views of a city being rebuilt, and scientific images.
- Born
- 1898
- Died
- 1991
- Country
- United States
- Field
- Photographer
KNOWN FOR
- 1939Changing New York
- 1928James Joyce (portrait)
WHY THEY MATTER
Major documentarian of 1930s New York and champion of Atget, whose archive she sold to the Museum of Modern Art; collections include the National Portrait Gallery, London.
THE LIFE
Abbott first made portraits of cultural figures between the wars, then turned to New York City in the 1930s. Working with a large-format camera, she recorded its architecture in the project Changing New York. She preserved and promoted Eugene Atget's work and sold his archive to the Museum of Modern Art in 1968. Later she made scientific photographs and developed a macro technique called Super Sight.
WHAT THEY SHOT WITH
Large format camera
Also born in 1850–1899
1857–1927 · France · Photographer
Eugene Atget
Patient, empty-street records of old Paris before modernisation.
Avenue des Gobelins, 1927Source: Wikipedia
1864–1946 · United States · Photographer
Alfred Stieglitz
From Pictorialism to sharp modernism, with a deep belief in photography as art.
The Steerage, 1907Source: Wikipedia
1874–1940 · United States · Photographer
Lewis Hine
Direct, dignified portraits of working children and labourers.
Young Doffers in the Elk Cotton Mills, 1910Source: Wikipedia
1876–1964 · Germany · Photographer
August Sander
Typological portraits of every class and trade, frontal and calm.
Face of Our Time (Antlitz der Zeit), 1929Source: Wikipedia
1879–1973 · United States · Photographer
Edward Steichen
Painterly early work, then glossy modern fashion and celebrity portraits.
The Flatiron, 1904Source: Wikipedia