Mamiyaroid 28
Berenice Abbott: Time and Access
You can start to see how my mind works. It flits, making connections. First William Eggleston, then Eudora Welty, and now Berenice Abbott (you’ll remember that Eudora Welty wanted to study with Berenice Abbott at the New School but was rejected). And sometime down the line I’ll probably have to talk about Man Ray and Eugene Atget since I’ve mentioned Abbott, but that’s for another time.
Everyone who comes here photographs New York, but I’m a New Yorker. My father was a New Yorker. My grandparents were New Yorkers, and my great grandparents sailed from Ireland and landed in New York. So when I’m out photographing in New York, I don’t think of it as photographing NEW YORK.
When I read that Berenice Abbott left her archive with the Museum of the City of New York I got that same sentimental lump in my throat when I enter the big libraries in New York and think about the enormity of the municipal temples of information.
I got an idea that I might want to recreate some of her New York photographs but the weather is bitter, and we’re still in a pandemic, and, and, and I made a compromise.
As you can see from this piece on one of Abbott’s most famous photographs, New York City at Night, taken in 1932, photography is about light, access and time.
You need enough light to expose the photograph onto the film, access to the location (in this case an upper floor of the Empire State Building), and time: a 15 minute exposure.
Instead of going out to recreate these photos I hopped on Google Street view to see how things have changed. I was first on the other side of the median and the view was off and then I realized the street must have been widened when the original buildings were knocked down for what looks like public housing. Once I moved over the view aligned.
I spent a lot of time navigating to approximate the angle of the original photo.
I went to Chinatown today and really felt the absence of people. The one thing I want photographic access to right now and in the future is people: their faces and bodies. Those are the things I want to photograph but today I made do with what I had access to: buildings and light. And when you’re chasing the light the clock is ticking against you.
Until next time…
Adalena
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-Adalena Kavanagh