Berenice Abbott @ Jeu de Paume – Paris

Berenice Abbott moved to New York in the early 1920s after giving up her journalism course at the University of Ohio. There she went about becoming a sculptor and mixed in the bohemian circles of Greenwich Village, meeting writers and artists, such a, Djuna Barnes, Sadakichi Hartmann and Marcel Duchamp.

In the early 20s she decided to join a good bunch of American expatriates that would explore the cultural boom coming from Europem and in 1923 she became the assistant of Man Ray finding herself at the heart of the avant-garde scene.

This is how Berenice Abbott’s myth is born, and Jeu de Paume (who keep organising some of the most attractive Parisian exhibitions lately) are bringing the most complete retrospective to-date in France of the American photographer, continuing their series of women photographers of the XXth century and following Diane Arbus’ winter exhibition.

Over 140 prints are invading the western exhibition space at Tuleries until late April and will try to cover every stage of Berenice Abbott’s career. From the moment she arrived to the French capital where she mixed herself within the artistic and intellectual circles of the day and managed to photograph a cosmopolitan cast including Eugène Atget, Marcel Duchamp, James Joyce, Jean Cocteau, …Max Ernst…

To her Changing New York project for which she is best known (a personal project that got funds from the Works Progress Administration, part of President Roosevelt’s New Deal efforts to combat the Great Depression); or her later educational project  for the renown Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

We know, we know… over 8€ isn’t the cheapest of exhibitions right now in Paris (especially if next door there’s an amazing Doisneau for 0 cents, but….), still, highly recommended,  over 2 months to visit and think that you’ll also get to see Ai Weiwei’s “Interlacing” for the same price. More info on Jeau de Paume’s website.