Berenice Abbott


photographer Berenice Abbott:


"A photograph is not a painting, a poem, a
symphony, a dance. It is not just a pretty picture,
not an exercise in contortionist techniques and
sheer print quality.

It is or should be a significant document, a
penetrating statement."


"The challenge for me has first been to see
things as they are, whether a portrait, a city
street, or a bouncing ball. In a word, I have
tried to be objective.

What I mean by objectivity is not the
objectivity of a machine, but of a sensible
human being with the mystery of personal
selection at the heart of it.

The second challenge has been to impose
order onto the things seen and to supply the
visual context and the intellectual framework -
that to me is the art of photography."


"Photography helps people to see."




                                                  Berenice Abbott