The West Side, Looking North from the Upper 30s / Nightview, ca. 1932
Gelatin silver print
33.8 x 26.9 cm (13-5/16 x 10-9/16 in.)
84.XM.1O13.4

One of the often-repeated ideas of gender description is the identification of the female as tender-hearted and the male as tough-minded. The photographs of Bourke-White (pl. 182) and Cunningham reproduced here refute this notion: they are tough-minded pictures by women. Berenice Abbott compli- cates the formula by combining traditional masculine and feminine qualities in more or less equal parts, as exemplified in her nighttime view of midtown Man- hattan looking down from the north side of the Empire State Building. The tender-mindedness of this image stems from the way the light softens the edges of the buildings, blurring the distinctions between them and contributing to an optimistic, idealistic, contemplative, and ultimately romantic interpretation of a tough and unyielding subject, the center of Manhattan island.
(BERENICE ABBOTT related to-->> 170, 173, 185)

related: web site -->>
• Get The Picture: Abbott
• Masters of Photography