A Tale of Two Cities: Eugene Atget’s Paris and Berenice Abbott’s New York

More than an exhibition of architectural photography, this show examines the work of two artists who were inextricably linked to each other and to the development of modern photography. Eugene Atget turned to photography after a career of acting on the stage and an earlier stint as a commercial seaman. He was dismayed by the amount of architectural history being destroyed during the modernization of Paris and began photographing the city’s shop fronts, streets, and neighborhoods.

Berenice Abbott met Atget in 1925 when she was working as a darkroom assistant to Man Ray. Abbott was deeply and permanently affected by Atget’s images, saying later that there was a sudden flash of recognition- the shock of realism unadorned. Upon returning to New York after an eight-year absence, Abbott realized the city had changed tremendously. She embarked on a project to document the ever-changing Gotham landscape. Her efforts produced a catalog of images that, like Atget’s earlier photographs of Paris, records the essential character of the city.

This exhibition is on loan from the Syracuse University Art Collection.