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El at Columbus Avenue and Broadway

El at Columbus Avenue and Broadway

Berenice Abbott
American, 1898–1991
1929
A gelatin silver print of an elevated railroad at Columbus Avenue and Broadway in which Abbott sets out to make the city's modern geometry and everyday rhythms visible.
Seen from above, the sun-bleached pavement becomes a near-empty stage of small walking figures, a crisply silhouetted horse on a rooftop, and strong diagonal railings that turn the scene into an abstract play of light and shadow.
Part of Abbott's program of documenting New York, the photograph helped recast ordinary street life as precise, modernist composition and shaped later approaches to urban and documentary photography.
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
6 3/16 × 8 5/16" (15.7 × 21.2 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Purchase
Accession
1.1994
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
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