Milk Wagon and Old Horse by Berenice Abbott

About This Project

A master image-maker for over 60 years, Berenice Abbott had the unique ability to create consistently strong photographs from several disparate realms of experience, from portraits to cityscapes, to the world of science. Each Abbott photograph radiates an aura of enduring discovery. Whether a spinning wrench, a shadowed canyon on lower Manhattan, or the weary countenance of Eugène Atget, her way of seeing is clear, objective and realistic. Lacking pretension, her photographs possess an intense overall clarity of vision. In a long life filled with creative endeavor of the highest order, she remained true to her art. Her philosophy can be reduced to twenty-one words: “Photography can never grow up if it imitates some other medium. It has to walk alone; it has to be itself.” Like the photography she loved, she often walked alone, but at the end of the walk, her life was a triumph.