“A DISTINCTIVE INTERPRETATION AS WELL AS A PRICELESS DOCUMENT”: FIRST EDITION OF CHANGING NEW YORK, SIGNED BY BERENICE ABBOTT

ABBOTT, Berenice. Changing New York. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1939. Quarto, original blue cloth, original photographic dust jacket. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $7000.

First edition of Abbott’s landmark photo-essay on New York City, signed by Abbott, featuring 97 brilliant halftone plates that display “the historical importance of the documentary mode… its power as a medium of personal expression” (Parr & Badger).

After spending the better part of the Twenties in Paris photographing such literary celebrities as James Joyce, Jean Cocteau and Andre Gide, Abbott returned to New York with the intention "to do in Manhattan what Atget did in Paris." Abbott captured the city "with a straightforward style that nodded toward 19th-century classicism while signaling a new sort of stripped-down modernism" (Roth, 100). "Changing New York not only fulfills Abbott's criterion for the historical importance of the documentary mode, but also demonstrates its power as a medium of personal expression" (Parr & Badger I:141), providing "a distinctive interpretation of New York as well as a priceless document thereof" (Icons of Photography, 104). Text by Elizabeth McCausland. Open Book, 130.

Images fresh, some light foxing mainly to preliminary leaves, bright gilt cloth; expert restoration to dust jacket. An extremely good copy, scarce signed.