Berenice Abbott, Changing New York:"Vanderbilt Avenue from East 46th Street, October 9, 1935,"

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National Gallery of Art

In 1929, Berenice Abbott returned to New York from Paris and was seized by a newfound passion for the city. She decided to embark on an ambitious documentary project: photographing New York City in its entirety. In 1935 the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration agreed to sponsor her work. Abbott photographed "Vanderbilt Avenue from East 46th Street" in the first month of her project.

In this photograph, Abbott demonstrates a brilliant understanding of architectural geometry. You might notice an emphasis on the verticality of the skyscrapers. Edges of buildings and windows are aligned while street signs and car roofs are arranged as horizontal counterpoints. By allowing a sliver of sky to appear between the dark foreground and lighter background buildings, Abbott opened the scene to a cascade of light that pours across façades and trickles off tiny windowpanes. At street level, the ghosts of moving cars and waving flags testify to a human presence and time's passage.

Berenice Abbott, "Vanderbilt Avenue from East 46th Street, October 9, 1935," gelatin silver print mounted on paperboard, National Gallery of Art, Washington, The Marvin Breckinridge Patterson Fund and Robert B. Menschel Fund