Grace Hanselman, curatorial assistant for works on paper, introduces the work of Berenice Abbott, a pioneering documentary photographer known best for her portraits of the Parisian avant-garde and striking snapshots of twentieth-century New York. In the 1920s, American-born Abbott worked as an assistant to Man Ray in Paris before her career as a portraitist solidified in its own right. In a major artistic pivot, she returned to the United States in 1929 to undertake her most celebrated project: documenting New York City’s rapid urban transformation. Lesser-known but equally accomplished is her body of work photographing other cities and towns in the American Northeast. This exhibition showcases selections from a 2007 gift of over 400 Abbott photographs, some iconic and rarely if ever exhibited, highlighting her enduring impact on modern photography.

Free. Accessible seats available; for information, call 413 458 0524.

Image: Berenice Abbott, New York at Night (detail), c. 1932, printed 1982, gelatin silver print. The Clark, gift of A&M Penn Photography Foundation by Arthur Stephen Penn and Paul Katz, 2007.2.178