Berenice Abbott

Berenice Abbott, born in Springfield, Ohio in 1898, was a dominant figure in twentieth-century American photography. Abbott moved to Paris from New York in 1921 and in 1923 was hired by her friend Man Ray, who was looking for an assistant who knew nothing about photography and whom he could teach. Abbott learned quickly and within a year was taking her own photographs. Over the next 65 years Abbott mastered a wide range of subjects, executing the monumental project Changing New York, photographing rural America and scientific and natural phenomena, establishing the reputation of Eugène Atget, and founding the first university photography program in the United States. Steidl published the two-volume retrospective Berenice Abbott (2008), Documenting Science (2011) and The Unknown Abbott (2013). Ronald A. Kurtz was born in 1932. A graduate and trustee of MIT, Kurtz had a long career in the high-tech materials industry. A lifelong interest in photography led him to collect fine art photographs, concentrating on the period between the World Wars and spanning from Berenice Abbott to Edward Weston. In 1985 he acquired the Berenice Abbott Archive. After donating a large part of the archive to various museums and institutions, he established Commerce Graphics to promote and preserve Abbott’s legacy. Kurtz is co-editor of the Steidl series of books on Abbott’s work, including Berenice Abbott (2008), Documenting Science (2011) and The Unknown Abbott (2013). Hank O’Neal was born in 1940 and, in addition to being a photographer, his career has included stints in the worlds of government, education, and record and concert production. In 1970 O’Neal took his first serious photographs and two years later met Berenice Abbott, with whom he worked closely for the next nineteen years. O’Neal is co-editor of Berenice Abbott (2008) and the fivevolume The Unknown Abbott (2013), and has published more than a dozen other books on various subjects, mostly related to photography, music or both. His book A Vision Shared, first published in 1976, is being reissued by Steidl.