The Reception and Sources of Berenice Abbott's Paris Portrait Style, 1925-1929

Author: Barr Peter  

Publisher: Routledge Ltd

ISSN: 0308-7298

Source: History of Photography, Vol.34, Iss.1, 2010-02, pp. : 43-59

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Abstract

This study focuses on the photographs that first brought Berenice Abbott critical acclaim: her Paris portraits from the late 1920s. As a body of work, these images - along with what Abbott had to say about them and the critical attention they generated at the time - provide a rich resource for the study of three interconnected topics: the avant-garde critical climate of Europe in the late 1920s, the American expatriate experience in Paris during this same time and Abbott's nascent photographic values and aesthetic, which helped to inform not only her portraits but also her later, better-known photographs of New York City. The paper first defines the divergent critical responses to Abbott's portrait work in the late 1920s - focusing especially on the published criticism by Florent Fels and Pierre Mac Orlan that helped to secure Abbott's international reputation as a leading modern photographer. It then turns to Abbott's expatriate experience in order to examine the ideas and individuals that she identified as most important to her photographic practice. Specifically the paper explains Abbott's desire to create an alternative approach to photography from the one used by Man Ray, her awareness of the classical style associated with Pablo Picasso and her admiration for the aesthetic theories of Leo Stein.