Loving New York in the 1930s in Paris in 2012

 On a recent trip to Paris, we happened upon a wonderful exhibit at the Jeu de Paume Museum. It was a real treat, a retrospective on the American photographer, Berenice Abbott, who spent many years in Paris, in the 1920s, socializing and working with many of the great intellectuals and artists of the time. To quote from the program description:

 The exhibition also features a substantial selection of images form her Changing New York project (1935-1939), for which she is best known. This undertaking was Abbott’s own initiative but was financed by the Works Progress Administration, part of Roosevelt’s New Deal efforts to combat the Great Depression. Conceived as both a record of the city and a work of art in its own right, this ambitious government commission focuses on the contrast between the old and the new in the rapidly changing city.


 I love the subject and her images are an incredible record of the City during the early 1930s.

And, of course this invitation was eye catching - an 1926 exhibit of her portrait work.

Jean Cocteau , poet and more, was one of her subjects

The exhibit is currently in Toronto thru September 19th.