Brett Weston, Berenice Abbott, Ilse Bing and Others

BERENICE ABBOTT

Fire Escape above Soda Shop

New York, ca. 1929-32, silver print
ca. 1930s 9 1/2 x 7
Photographer's stamp on print verso.

BERENICE ABBOTT

"Ferry: Chamber Street from the Southwest"

New York, 1938, silver print, ca. 1938
7 3/4 x 9 5/8, Federal Art Project stamp and
info. label on print verso.

BERENICE ABBOTT

"Sumner Healy Antique Shop"

NY, 1936, silver print, ca. 1936
9 1/2 x 7 5/8, signed, titled, dated in pencil and
Commerce Street credit stamp and label on print verso.

ILSE BING

"Shoeshine"

1936, silver print, ca. 1936
11 x 8 3/16, name and date in
white ink in u.r. corner of print.

ILSE BING

"Empire State Building"

1936, silver print, ca. 1930s
7 1/2 x 11, signed and dated in white ink on
l.l. corner of print.

ILSE BING

"Wall Street"

1936, silver print, ca. 1936
11 1/16 x 7 7/8, Signed and dated in black ink in
l.l. corner of print.

ILSE BING

"Looking West"

1936, silver print, ca. 1936
8 3/4 x 11 1/16
Signed and dated in white ink in
l.r. corner of print.

ILSE BING

"Daily News Building"

1936, silver print, ca. 1936
11 1/16 x 8 1/16, Signed and dated in white ink in
l.l. corner of print, signed, dated, and titled in
pencil on mount verso.

More Exhibition Photographs

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Brett Weston, Berenice Abbott, Ilse Bing and others: Vintage Photographs of NYC from the 1930s and 1940s.

There have always been strong visual forces that have drawn artists to the city, especially New York City. By the 1920s the photography culture in New York city was more vibrant than in any other city in the country, and this trend intensified in the 1930s. With the large number of photo magazines being produced, combined with the other arts, industry and politics, it is not surprising that New York city became a cultural hotbed.

Whether it be towering buildings rising from concrete, cables running in abstract directions from suspension bridges, steam billowing skyward from smoke stacks or vast overviews of the city, these influences have visually stimulated photographers, and in turn many have been able to evoke a feeling of monumental presence from these structures. This is clearly seen in Ilse Bing's "Daily News Building". As a result of the camera angle and by harmonizing the values in the print, Bing gives this inanimate object a dark and foreboding presence as it rises skyward. Many of these same qualities can also be seen in Brett Weston's "Williamsburg Bridge" .

Although these closer views mentioned above can be visually powerful, cityscapes can be equally intoxicating. Take Todd Webb's "From Empire State Building" where one's breath is taken away by the city buildings lit up against the dusk sky, or Brett Weston's "New York City" where one could get lost in the maze of structures crowding the frame. It is clear that the city inspires photographers to create powerful images and perhaps the reasons are best summed up by Bernice Abbott when she stated, "suppose we took a thousand negatives and made a gigantic montage: a myriad-faceted picture combing the elegances, the squalor, the curiosities, the monuments, the sad faces, the triumphant faces, the power, the irony, the strength, the decay, the past, the present, the future of a city - that would be my favorite picture".

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