July Artist Birthdays and Birthday Feature Berenice Abbott

July is packed with artist birthdays, including Frida Kahlo (July 6), Marc Chagall (July 7), David Hockney (July 9), Camille Pissarro (July 10), James McNeill Whistler (July 11), Amedeo Modigliani (July 12), Edgar Degas (July 19), Edward Hopper and Alexander Calder (July 22), Thomas Eakins (July 25), Marcel Duchamp (July 28) and Jean Dubuffet (July 31). The birthday feature for this month is photographer Berenice Abbott, whose work has a clear, painterly beauty and who was born in Ohio on July 17, 1898.

After a stint at Ohio State, Abbott made her way to Greenwich Village like many creatively inclined types of her generation. In the Village she shared a communal house with writer Djuna Barnes and critic and author Malcolm Cowley, and again like many creatively inclined types of her generation, Abbott eventually went to Europe. In Paris, she took a job as photographer Man Ray’s assistant, her lack of camera savvy at the time being a plus, as the busy and successful Ray just wanted to hire someone who would simply assist and not any aspiring photographic geniuses.

Unfortunately for Man Ray, Berenice Abbott had natural photographic talent and would eventually rival Ray in terms of doing stylish portrait work. Abbott's study of the iconic James Joyce is a great example of her style, as is her portrait of French photographer Eugene Atget (1857-1927). Abbott came to know Atget through Man Ray, and she became a strong champion of the then-overlooked chronicler of distinctive Paris scenes. After Atget’s death, Abbott made it a point to obtain most of his prints and photographic negatives and to promote them faithfully so that Atget’s genius would be rightfully recognized.

Berenice Abbott was also a fine photographer of the American landscape, especially her many pictures of New York during the 1930s. Her diverse interests led her to produce fascinating work in the field of scientific photography as well. In general, Abbott’s haphazard decision to become Man Ray’s assistant in 1923 led to a remarkable career during the as remarkable and swiftly-changing 20th century. Berenice Abbott died in December of 1991 at the age of 93.

Photography helps people to see. -- Berenice Abbott