Berenice Abbott

Flatiron - Berenice Abbott

I spoke about Berenice Abbott to the HNC class in relation to environmental photography, landscape and cityscape. Her picture of the Flatiron building in New York is a good example. She'd arrived from Paris - old Europe - and found New York to be overwhelmingly stimulating. Clear, sharp objective photography was, for her, the perfect way to make pictures of it - the most modern artform for the most modern of cities.
Not that she cared about 'artforms' or many other arts preoccupations - "Photography doesn't help you express emotions, it teaches you how to see." She disagreed strongly with Alfred Steiglitz, who for some time championed 'pictorial' photography - a style that emulated the brushwork and soft focus effect of painting. She thought photography was a fantastic thing for its own sake, and did not need to be a 'bad excuse for any other art form.' Strong opinions then!

The Steerage - Steiglitz

She was, to put it precisely, a part of the Modernist style of thinking. Stieglitz was a Pictorialist, and was important because his style developed into Modernism too, taking most of the photographic world with him. His photograph, The Steerage, which is one of Allan's favourites, marks the point when he changed his view, and when photography suddenly reached a state of self-confidence - it wasn't trying be painting - it was photography!
Abbott also produced a lot of science-related photography, using stroboscopic techniques to illustrate gravity effects. She told scientists that they were the worst photographers, but they needed the best photographers in the world to help communicate their work. And she was one of the best.
So Berenice Abbott is a good photographer to look at for at least two projects, and to see how she discovered and championed another significant photographer - Eugene Atget - as well as violently disagreeing with Stieglitz even though some of their work looks similar.
Look here for more about Berenice Abbott:
http://www.artsmia.org/get-the-picture/abbott/frame05.html