East Side Portrait

1930s

The idea behind “Changing New York”

Her project is primarily a sociological study embedded within modernist aesthetic practices, meant to show the interaction between the city’s diverse people, the places where they live, work and play, and their daily activities. Lewis Mumford’s historical writings of the early 1930s strongly influence her, and buildings of the “paleotechnic era” often look downright menacing in her photographs.

1937

“Changing New York” exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York

Her first exhibition in New York (other accounts place an exhibition at this museum as early as 1934) becomes her best-known project. The photographs depict the city’s physical transformation, including changes to its neighbourhoods and the replacement of low-rise buildings with skyscrapers.

19 June 1937 – 12 September 1937

Took part in: foto '37

1939

The book “Changing New York” is published

The book, with captions by Elizabeth McCausland, is well received, but differs markedly from the one Abbott and McCausland first envisioned, especially in captions and sequencing; in 1973 it will be reissued as “New York in the 30’s”. Ralph Steiner writes in PM that her work is the greatest collection of photographs of New York City ever made.

early 1940s

Develops “Super Sight”, the Abbott Process

In the early 1940s she develops “Super Sight”, a form of macro photography also known as the Abbott Process. She invents photographic equipment and techniques as well.

1940s and 1950s

Science photography away from the public eye

She works away from the attention of the wider public: her main occupation is photographing physical and chemical processes, and to understand them better she takes chemistry courses. The scientific community greets her work with scepticism, and she believes she is a victim of sexism; other accounts say science photography occupied her until the 1960s.