Consolidated Edison Power House, 666 First Avenue (New York)

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Consolidated Edison Power House, 666 First Avenue (New York)

Artist Berenice Abbott (American, 1898 -1991)

DateNovember 14, 1938

DimensionsOverall: 10 x 8 in. (25.4 x 20.3 cm);
Image: 9 5/8 x 7 1/8 in. (24.4 x 18.1 cm)

MediumVintage gelatin-silver print

ClassificationPhotographs

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1984.173

Not on View

Label TextFrom 1935 to 1939, Berenice Abbott, with the support of the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project, made a photographic survey of New York City. She worked with a large-format camera producing 8 x 10 inch negatives capable of reproducing the smallest of details and processed the photographs herself. The result was one of the most remarkable bodies of work focused on the life and architecture of the city. From majestic skyscrapers to tenements, from people on the streets to views of the streets abandoned, Abbott created a body of work emulating and rivaling her mentor and idol Eugène Atget’s images of Paris.Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, Buildings Real and Ideal, Nov. 15, 2007 - Jan 27, 2008 (no cat.) Toledo Museum of Art, Refraction/Reflection, April 20-September 2, 2012.Comparative ReferencesSee also Bernice Abbott: Changing New York, New York, Museum of the City of New York, 1997, p. 249, no. 21, repr.