Hot Dog Stand, West St. and North Moore, Manhattan

Berenice Abbott
$85.00
Size

Add Custom Frame

Frames ship to U.S. addresses only. Framed prints ship in 2–4 weeks and are final sale. Full framing details

Add Custom Frame

Frames ship to U.S. addresses only. Framed prints ship in 2–4 weeks and are final sale. Full framing details

Add Custom Frame

Frames ship to U.S. addresses only. Framed prints ship in 2–4 weeks and are final sale. Full framing details

Add Custom Frame

Frames ship to U.S. addresses only. Framed prints ship in 2–4 weeks and are final sale. Full framing details
Artist Statement
Abbott had a deeply ingrained sense of the balance between objectivity and subjectivity in her work, intent on representing reality but all the while aware that her choice of subject, angle, and other aspects automatically imposed the personal on everything she shot. In Hot Dog Stand, West St. and North Moore, Manhattan, the close crop and shallow depth of field establish straight up that this image is all about the vendor and his stand. The midday sun and sharp focus create crisp wheel shadows on the sidewalk and draw the eye to the hand-painted lettering on the cart calling out ice cold lemonade and hot frankfurter rolls for 5 cents a pop. That pricing, the wheels, the slice of skyline blurred at the back, and the sliver of a truck Abbott’s included at right are all historical context clues, situating us squarely in the 1930s. By contrast, the neat stacks of buns and paper bags you can see in those glass cubbies, and the classic umbrella are familiar sights to anyone who has hit up an NYC hot dog stand in the last century—time has barely touched them.
Why We Love It

The NYC street vendor scene is an essential part of the texture of this metropolis, sustaining us with soft pretzels, tamales, roasted nuts, halal plates, and so much more. Perhaps the most iconic sidewalk fare is the hot dog, the reigning king of New York street meat—affordable, easy to eat on the go, satisfying, and widely available. Part of Abbott’s acclaimed Changing New York series, Hot Dog Stand, West St. and North Moore, Manhattan is a departure from the photographs of architecture and urban design that are usually referenced in characterizing the project. But as our Berenice Abbott collectors already know, the artist often turned her lens on more intimate details of the city as well. Cheese stores, newsstands, bakeries, automats, and hot dog carts are as much a part of New York’s makeup as the skyscrapers, bridges, and buildings, Abbott’s images seem to say ... More on the blog!

Details

+ Limited-edition, exclusive to 20x200
+ Museum quality: archival inks, 100% cotton rag paper unless noted
+ Handcrafted custom-framing is available

Our quoted dimensions are for the size of paper containing the images, not the printed image itself. We do not alter the aspect ratio, nor do we crop or resize the artists’ originals. All of our prints have a minimum border of .5 inches to allow for framing.

Medium

Hahnemuhle Fine Art Baryta

Edition Structure:
10"x8" | edition of 10
14"x11" | edition of 150
20"x16" | edition of 25
24"x20" | edition of 10
Artist - Berenice Abbott

Berenice Abbott

Berenice Abbott was an American photographer best known for her black and white photography of New York City architecture and urban design of the 1930s. Abbott was born in Springfield, Ohio. She attended the Ohio State University, but left in early 1918. Abbott went to Europe in 1921, spending two years studying sculpture in Paris and Berlin. In addition to her work in the visual arts, Abbott published poetry in the experimental literary journal transition. Abbott first became involved with photography in 1923, when Man Ray, looking for somebody who knew nothing about photography and thus would do as he said, hired her as a darkroom assistant at his portrait studio in Montparnasse. In 1926, she had her first solo exhibition (in the gallery Au Sacre du Printemps) and started her own studio on the rue du Bac. In early 1929, Abbott visited New York and was struck by its photographic potential. She moved to the city and began work on her New York project, which she worked on independently until 1935, when she was hired by the Federal Art Project as a project supervisor for her Changing New York project. She continued to take the photographs of the city, but she had assistants to help her both in the field and in the office. This arrangement allowed Abbott to devote all her time to producing, printing and exhibiting her photographs. By the time she resigned from the FAP in 1939, she had produced 305 photographs that were then deposited at the Museum of the City of New York.