Portraits of modernity

With only 5 or 6 negatives, without being in a hurry, Berenice Abbott extracted the interior of the people she photographed. Men of particular interest to photography such as James Joyce and Eugène Atget; icons of a new masculinity such as Jean Cocteau and André Gide; women willing to the live on the margins of respectability to safeguard their freedom such as Janet Flanner, Peggy Guggenheim, Princess Marthe Bibesco and Djuna Barnes, and even Berenice Abbott herself who made self-portraits on many occasions. All are part of the artist’s intention to document modernity.

Abbott captured the life project of a group of which she formed a part. With this video, we invite you to learn about the avant-garde environment of Berenice Abbott.