PHOTOGRAPHS
Abbott, Berenice
U.S. (1898 - 1991)
Wall Street Canyon
1938
Gelatin silver print
9 5/8 x 7 1/2 in. (24.5 x 19.1 cm) image and sheet size
Joseph and Elaine Monsen Photography Collection, gift of Joseph and Elaine Monsen and The Boeing Company
FA 97.2

Like Ralph Steiner, Berenice Abbott used the camera to record American scenes with a particular metaphoric power. Unusual views of Manhattan’s linear, built environment were frequent subjects for her in the 1920s and 1930s. This type of picture echoes the modernist emphasis on formalism over social realism and is especially reminiscent of Precisionist painting style.

-- Label copy for The Photographic Impulse: Selections from the Joseph and Elaine Monsen Photography Collection, July 12 to November 10, 2002.