ABBOTT (Berenice). - Lot 4

ABBOTT (Berenice). Berenice Abbott. American photographer. Text by Hank O'Neal. Introduction by Brigitte Hermann. Paris, Philippe Sers, 1982. Large quarto, publisher's hardcover with illustrated dust jacket, lavishly illustrated with black-and-white photographic reproductions. The first major monograph published in French devoted to Berenice Abbott (1898–1991), a leading figure in 20th-century American photography. Settling in Paris in the 1920s alongside Man Ray, Abbott discovered the work of Eugène Atget, whose chief advocate she became after his death by acquiring a large portion of his photographic archive. Upon her return to New York in 1929, she created her most famous body of work, *Changing New York*, a vast photographic inventory of the rapidly changing metropolis during the Great Depression. Published under the direction of Hank O’Neal, a close friend of the photographer and a major collector of her work, this book traces her entire career: portraits of leading figures of the Parisian avant-garde (James Joyce, Jean Cocteau, André Gide, Eugène Atget, Pierre de Massot...), the views of New York that have become emblematic of American modernity, as well as her explorations in scientific photography beginning in the 1940s. The illustrations, reproduced with remarkable quality, capture the full diversity of Abbott’s work, from her portraits of artists to the monumental architecture of Manhattan, including the visual experiments that established her as one of the great heirs to documentary photography. Published at a time when Abbott’s work was beginning to be fully reevaluated on the international stage, this volume remains one of the leading French-language references dedicated to this pioneer of modern photography. Condition: A very fine copy. Illustrated dust jacket in excellent condition with very slight signs of wear. Interior is fresh and perfectly preserved.