Monday, December 19, 2011

Berenice Abbott, Pennsylvania Station, 1937



Berenice Abbott was a passionate photographer of New York City. Inspired by the speed of New York's skyscraper boom and ever changing landscape during the early 20th century, Abbott was able to document the monumental scope of architecture and the excitement of existing beneath those structures.

Inspired by the Roman Bath's of Caracalla and set to the scale of St. Peter's in Rome, the original Pennsylvania Station was a great temple to modern life and transportation. In her capturing the vastness of the steel arches coupled with the minuscule humans beneath, Abbott engages her viewer with the breathlessness that must have been felt in this great hall.

References:
Yochelson, Bonnie. Berenice Abbott: Changing New York. New York: The New Press, 2008.
Art:
Print, 1983. Dallas Museum of Art, Foundation for the Arts Collection, gift of Morton and Marlene Meyerson.

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