Corlears Street, nos. 3-5; Corner of Corlears and Monroe Streets
March 4, 1937, printed later
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image: 27.3 × 34.9 cm (10 3/4 × 13 3/4 in.) mount: 50.9 × 40.6 × 0.1 cm (20 1/16 × 16 × 1/16 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Corcoran Collection (Gift of Mr. Ronald Kurtz)
Accession Number
2016.22.87
Art Historical Context
Berenice Abbott’s gelatin silver print captures a quiet moment on New York’s Lower East Side, recording the sturdy brick buildings at the corner of Corlears and Monroe Streets on March 4, 1937. during a period of rapid urban transformation, Abbott approached her subjects with clarity and precision, preserving the everyday architecture and street life that would soon disappear beneath later development. The photograph’s medium—a gelatin silver print—allowed Abbott to achieve rich tonal contrast and fine detail, qualities that give the image its crisp, documentary presence. Printed later from t...
About the Artist
Berenice Abbott
Berenice Abbott (1898–1991) was an American photographer whose documentary images of New York City and pioneering scientific photography established her as one of the most important photographers of the twentieth century. Born in Springfield, Ohio, she moved to New York in 1918, briefly studied sculpture, and then traveled to Paris, where she became Man Ray's studio assistant in 1923. In Paris, A...