Bread Store, 259 Bleecker Street, Manhattan

by Berenice Abbott

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Artist Statement

Berenice Abbot proposed Changing New York, her grand project to document New York City, to the Federal Art Project (FAP) in 1935. Two years later on a chilly February day, she snapped this image of Zito's Bakery. The 5-cent loaves are clearly fresh from the oven, their warmth fogging up the front window. It's not hard to imagine the smell that must have been wafting through the cool wintry air, reaching Abbott as she set up her camera to get the shot, despite her skeptical onlookers in the window.

At the time, Zito's Bakery had been open just over a decade, but little did Abbott (or the current Zito's owners) know that this bakery would become a neighborhood staple with lines down the block until its close in 2004. The storefront now stands as a stylish Italian brunch and dinner spot. But rather than look back in nostalgia, we look at this photo as a testament to the enduring and ever-changing neighborhoods of New York.

 

A portion of the proceeds from this edition will go towards the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City to help those affected by the March 26th building collapse in the East Village.

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:

Innova Fibaprint Warm Cotton Gloss

Edition Structure:
10"x8" | edition of 20
14"x11" | edition of 200
20"x16" | edition of 50

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... Read More
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.
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