Abstract
This thesis examines the experience of modernity expressed in the American photographer Berenice Abbott’s photographs of New York, taken from 1929 to 1939. In her works, these images also foreshadow the postmodern condition. The focus is on the iconographic analysis, in association with her own writings and the art criticisms of her works. My thesis discusses Abbott’s double vision of New York in her photographs. On the one hand, she praised its development, but on the other hand, she emphasized its woeful side. After careful analysis of her photographs, I find that her images from 1929 to 1935 consist of strong visual aesthetics, such as capturing the instant moment, variable vision, and surrealist sense. It was after 1935, when Abbott took photographs in the “Changing New York” project, that she paid more attention on the historical issue, by juxtaposing the old and new buildings and implying a perpetually transitional world. Abbott’s modern perspective is raised by the New York city’s huge complexities. Her works reflect the brilliant and vital aspects of urban environment, such as diverse shop windows, advertisements, and the skyscrapers. Besides, she focuses her lens on the subterranean figures in their environment, and shows how people are oppressed and alienated under the capitalist city. Berenice Abbott stands in an objective position to elucidate the conflicting phenomena of modernity, and she profoundly grapes the indigenous aspects of New York city in her works. My thesis is the first work concerning to an epochal city culture in Berenice Abbott’s New York photographs.
Key Words: Berenice Abbott, photography, New York, modernity, postmodernity, machine aesthetics, alienation, surrealism.
This thesis examines the experience of modernity expressed in the American photographer Berenice Abbott’s photographs of New York, taken from 1929 to 1939. In her works, these images also foreshadow the postmodern condition. The focus is on the iconographic analysis, in association with her own writings and the art criticisms of her works. My thesis discusses Abbott’s double vision of New York in her photographs. On the one hand, she praised its development, but on the other hand, she emphasized its woeful side. After careful analysis of her photographs, I find that her images from 1929 to 1935 consist of strong visual aesthetics, such as capturing the instant moment, variable vision, and surrealist sense. It was after 1935, when Abbott took photographs in the “Changing New York” project, that she paid more attention on the historical issue, by juxtaposing the old and new buildings and implying a perpetually transitional world. Abbott’s modern perspective is raised by the New York city’s huge complexities. Her works reflect the brilliant and vital aspects of urban environment, such as diverse shop windows, advertisements, and the skyscrapers. Besides, she focuses her lens on the subterranean figures in their environment, and shows how people are oppressed and alienated under the capitalist city. Berenice Abbott stands in an objective position to elucidate the conflicting phenomena of modernity, and she profoundly grapes the indigenous aspects of New York city in her works. My thesis is the first work concerning to an epochal city culture in Berenice Abbott’s New York photographs.
Key Words: Berenice Abbott, photography, New York, modernity, postmodernity, machine aesthetics, alienation, surrealism.
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