Background information
"Berenice ABBOTT was one of the most versatile photographic artists of the twentieth century and her work has been published and publicized since the beginning of her career in 1925. She is best known for her Paris portraits of the 1920s and her documentation of New York City in the 1930s but, like most great artists, Berenice ABBOTT’s reputation has rested on a small portion of her life’s work. For every time one of her most famous photographs has been published there are many others that could have served the same purpose but were not used because they are less well known. In Berenice ABBOTT’s case there is an unusually large body of unknown work because during the most potentially creative time of her life, the circumstances of her existence were very complicated, largely due to lack of work and income, particularly between the years 1929 to 35 and 1940 to 1959. Many of the photographs she did manage to create in those years were not sufficiently commercial to attract a publisher and she was financially unable to publicize them on her own, develop a project to its natural conclusion or, in some instances, even undertake a project of interest. 'The Unknown Abbott' attempts to correct this situation and make some of Berenice ABBOTT’s outstanding but largely unknown work available to a wider public. A Two volumes set about Berenice ABBOTT and in 'Documenting Science' were published in 2008 and 2012. These books are currently out of print.
Content
'The Unknown Abbott' is a very ambitious project that present hundreds of outstanding Berenice ABBOTT images for the first time. Her reputation is already very secure, but these previously unknown images will further clarify the range of her photographicactivity beyond her 'Paris Portraits', 'Changing New York' and 'Documenting Science'." (partly customized publisher's note, © Stzeidl Verlag, 2013)
- Format
- HC, 39 x 37 x 22 cm., 1244 pp., text language: English, Ltd. to 2,000 copies