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Definition: Abbott, Berenice from The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide

US photographer. She is best known for her portrait studies of artists in the 1920s and for her comprehensive documentation of New York City in the 1930s, culminating in the publication of Changing New York 1939. Her straightforward style was partially influenced by the French photographer Eugène Atget, whose work she rescued from obscurity.

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Abbott, Berenice


Abbott, Berenice

From Chambers Biographical Dictionary
1898-1991 US photographer Born in Springfield, Ohio, she studied at Ohio State University with the intention of becoming a journalist, then moved to New York (1918), and to Europe (1921), where she studied sculpture. She worked in Paris as assistant to Man Ray (1923-25) and in 1926 opened her own portrait studio there. Her work was first shown at the Au Sacre du Printemps gallery, Paris (1926). In 1929 she returned to work in New York, where from 1934 she also taught photography. From the early 1930s she became the companion of art historian and critic Elizabeth McCausland, and in 1968 settled in Maine. Abbott is well known for her innovative documentation of town- and cityscapes, for example her project Changing New York (1929-39, also the title of a book, 1939, with text by McCausland), and her pioneering illustrations of the laws and processes of physics. Her other publications include, as editor, The World of Atget (1964) and as photographer, The Attractive Universe (1969, text by…
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Full text Article Abbott, Berenice

From The Palgrave Macmillan Dictionary of Women's Biography
American photographer. Born in Springfield, Ohio, at the age of 22 she left to study sculpture in New York, Berlin and Paris where she worked as assistant to the photographer Man Ray from 1923 to 1925. During her stay in Paris her subjects included Joyce, Gide, Cocteau and marie L aurencin . In 1929…
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Full text Article ABBOTT, BERENICE (1898–1991)

From Historical Dictionary of the Lesbian and Gay Liberation Movements
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Full text Article Berenice Abbott (1898–1991)

From The American Women's Almanac: 500 Years of Making History
Berenice Abbott (1898–1991)
Celebrated for her photographs of twentieth-century New York City architecture and urban design as well as her portraits of cultural figures and studies of scientific subjects, Berenice Abbott was born Bernice Abbott in Springfield, Ohio, where she was raised by her divorced mother. After attending…
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Full text Article PHOTOGRAPHY

From Collins Dictionary of Quotations
Photography can never grow up if it imitates some other medium. It has to walk alone; it has to be itself. ABBOTT, Berenice Infinity , 1951. [Refusing to pose for a close-up photograph] Take a close-up of a woman past sixty!You might as well use a picture of arelief map of Ireland! [Attr.] Most…
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Full text Article Abbott

From Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary Full text Article Biographical Names
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Full text Article Biographies

From The American Women's Almanac: 500 Years of Making History Full text Article Art and Applied Arts
Berenice Abbott (1898–1991) Diane Arbus (1923–1971) Ruth Asawa (1926–2013) Judy Baca (1946–) Cecilia Beaux (1855–1942) Louise Blanchard Bethune (1856–1913) Joan E. Biren (1944–) …
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Full text Article Abbott, Berenice

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
(born July 17, 1898, Springfield, Ohio, U.S.—died Dec. 9, 1991, Monson, Maine) U.S. photographer. She left the American Midwest in 1918 to study in New York City, Paris, and Berlin. In Paris she became an assistant to Man Ray and Eugène Atget . In 1925 she set up her own studio and made portraits of…
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Full text Article Abbott, Berenice

From A to Z of Women: American Women in the Visual Arts
Photographer Berenice Abbott was born on July 17,...
(b. 1898–d. 1991) photographer Berenice Abbott was one of the most accomplished American photographers of the 20th century. Her compelling body of work, which spanned six decades and two continents, is characterized by its pioneering documentary approach and its exacting artistry. “The…
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Full text Article Abbott, Berenice

From Chambers Biographical Dictionary
1898-1991 US photographer Born in Springfield, Ohio, she studied at Ohio State University with the intention of becoming a journalist, then moved to New York (1918), and to Europe (1921), where she studied sculpture. She worked in Paris as assistant to Man Ray (1923-25) and in 1926 opened her own…
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Full text Article Abbott, Berenice

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
(bĕr´´Әnēs'), 1898–1991, American photographer, b. Springfield, Ohio. Abbott turned from sculpture to photography in 1923. She was assistant to Man Ray in Paris (1923–25), where she made an extraordinary series of portraits of the artistic and literary celebrities of the 1920s. She began her great…
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