Berenice Abbott and Eugene Atget FROM THE PUBLISHER
"Eugene Atget's photographs of Paris are among the greatest works in photography made at any time, in any place. Spanning a twenty-nine-year period (1898-1927), Atget's photographs are literally the Paris of our collective imagination." "In 1927 Berenice Abbot became the largest collector of Atget's work when she purchased his estate. For the next forty years, Abbott devoted much of her creative life to popularizing Atget's work. Our vision of Eugene Atget and Atget's Paris was literally Abbott's invention. Drawn from work in previously unpublished archives, this book details Abbott's rare prints of Atget's negatives for the first time." Today, Atget's work forms the bedrock of an American modernist photographic vision. Yet the Abbott/Atget printings are among the least known and most vibrant prints in the photographic medium. This work represents one of the few instances of one great photographer printing another great photographer's work. Representing perhaps only one percent of Atget's surviving work, the prints are Abbott's vision of the photographer who single-handedly changed photographic modernism in the twentieth century.
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
Eugene Atget, the "Balzac of the camera" and a beloved chronicler of Paris from 1898 to 1927, was the master of giving an objective view of the city's poor. New York photographer Berenice Abbott bought all of the prints and negative plates in Atget's estate in 1927, and for 40 years she printed from his negatives, produced new copies of old prints, cataloged, treasured, and promoted the collection. This carefully produced volume is a brilliant window into the art of photography and the beauty that Atget revealed in an earlier Paris. It contains an excellent essay by Worswick, a photographic historian and collector, who tells the tale of Abbott's acquisition and devotion to the Atget collection. Worswick details the long story of Abbott's obsession and her struggle to sell the treasure to a proper collector. It builds to a happy ending with the eventual appreciation and wide exhibition of the photographs. This piece and Abbott's 18-page text outlining her passion for these quiet black-and-white photographs make a solid contribution to photo history. Recommended for all collections.-David Bryant, New Canaan P.L., CT
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