Man Ray Photographer Berenice Abbott, Paris c.1922“A photograph is not a painting, a poem, a symphony, a dance. It is not just a pretty picture, not an exercise in contortionist techniques and sheer print quality.” Berenice Abbott
Berenice Abbott, Paris, 1924 -by Man Ray-Moving on to Europe in the 1920s, Abbott worked from 1925 to 1929 as a photographic assistant to May Ray in Paris. Through her work printing Man Ray’s photographs, Abbott herself discovered her talent as a photographer. In 1926 Abbott had her first solo exhibition in the Parisian gallery, Le Sacre du Printemps. This exhibition featured Abbott’s portrait photography in which she captured personalities associated with avant-garde art movements.
After working as Man Ray’s studio assistant, Berenice Abbott returned to the United States, where she perfected her famous bird's-eye & worm's-eye points-of-view. #WomensHistoryMonth Berenice Abbott, 1938
Berenice Abbott: 1898-1991 "Berenice Abbott is recognized as the originator of documentary photography, or photojournalism. No other photographer had yet envisioned the camera as a tool for realistic documentation."