For the second half of this semester in Advanced Photo class, I am working off the idea spawned by my interest in photographer Berenice Abbott. She was only 31 years old when she published her book called "Changing New York". It is an extensive collection of urban photographs of all of the different areas in New York City, Queens and Brooklyn. As part of the WPA project, she was paid to document the city and its quickly growing scenery. Photographed in the 1930's this collection is pretty expensive considering she was shooting with an 8x10 camera. From a historical perspective, it is interesting to see in her photo's people and how they dressed, automobiles of that era, prices of gasoline and food. The images make me think about the progression of the times and the idea of these places still looking similar 80 years after she took on this project.
So with my project, I am using a medium format camera, black and white film. I am shooting downtown because thats where most of the historical buildings are. The technical aspects of Abbotts photos are also something I am looking at. I really appreciate her tonal variation of the photos, and with mine plan to accomplish something similar. I want viewers to look not only at the content, but also at specific printing choices that I have made such as composition, time of day, crop, direction, etc. I want to challenge myself in the darkroom and really make a perfect print with this project.
Another thing I think about quite often and have thought about with this project is the importance of us as photographers to constantly refer back to historical figures that pioneered this medium, for me looking at historical photograhers inspires new interpretations of their ideas.
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