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North and South: Berenice Abbott's U.S. Route 1
February 15-July 13, 2003
In June 1954 Berenice Abbott set off with two companions on a photographic adventure. Their goal--to discover America. Abbott, an accomplished portraitist and the author of the WPA project Changing New York, sought to capture distinctive American views along U.S. Route 1 before development and commercialism changed it forever. Over the course of her three-month journey, Abbott took more than 2,400 pictures. Although they are Abbott's largest body of work devoted to a single subject, these evocative photographs remain little known. More than 60 of Abbott's Route 1 photographs were exhibited at the National Heritage Museum in "North and South: Berenice Abbott's U.S. Route 1," on view February 15 through July 13, 2003.
In her writing, Abbott revealed what motivated her to take the trip--"We wanted to capture visually the character of an historic section of the United States, its beauties and incongruities and all. If visible evidences of the past survived, we wanted to photograph them before bulldozers and derricks moved in." The ambitious travelers set off from New York in a station wagon pulling a trailer that served as both darkroom and sleeping quarters. They drove south on Route 1 to Key West, where they turned around and followed the road to its northern terminus at Fort Kent, Maine. Moving along the seaboard, Abbott documented Georgia peach pickers, New England farmers and Baltimore housewives as well as scenes of everyday life in cities and towns from Florida to Maine. The photographs presented in the exhibition exemplified Abbott as a chronicler of the details that defined America. In 1951 Abbott stated, "Photography cannot ignore the great challenge to reveal and celebrate reality." In the Route 1 photographs, Abbott strived to capture what she saw without sentiment or condescension. The 56-year-old Abbott devoted part of the journey and much of the next two years to making prints. The book that she envisioned, however, was never published. "North and South: Berenice Abbott's U.S. Route 1," offered an opportunity to glimpse an important American artist's impression of the United States half a century ago.
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