The Berenice Abbott Archive
The Berenice Abbott Archive
By Berenice Abbott
The Berenice Abbott Archive at The Image Centre
Through the postwar expansion of scientific research in the United States, American photographer Berenice Abbott (1898-1991) was employed full-time by the Physical Science Study Committee at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge) to create a body of work on the principles of mechanics and light. These scientific experimentations are presented through abstract and formally compelling photographs, made of visual discoveries and surprises. To capture these pictures, which combine documentary ambitions and the aesthetics of the marvelous and the invisible, Abbott, a highly skilled technician, enhanced the equipment of some of her cameras, extended the exposure time, and used strobe lights flashing on the objects as they moved through space and time.
The Image Centre at Toronto Metropolitan University holds a growing collection of nearly 400,000 photographic objects, amongst them the Berenice Abbott Archive. The largest and most comprehensive collection of her work, the Archive comprises more than 6,000 photographs and 7,000 negatives from the mid-1920s through the 1980s, as well as book maquettes, correspondence, personal journals, business records, and ephemera. Highlights include a large selection of her innovative scientific photography made in the 1950s.
Curatorial credit: The Image Centre
Exhibition dates: April 1 – Aug 31 2024
Image caption: Berenice Abbott, Untitled [Electric force #3], MIT, Cambridge, MA, ca. 1958-1961. The Berenice Abbott Archive, The Image Centre © Estate of Ronald Kurtz, Commerce Graphics, 2023.
Presented in partnership with The Image Centre, Capture Photography Festival and the Canada Line Public Art Program – InTransit BC.
