Berenice Abbott retrospective at MAN Nuoro spans street photography and science

The MAN museum in Nuoro, directed by Lorenzo Giusti, presents a major retrospective of American photographer Berenice Abbott (Springfield, Ohio, 1898 – Monson, Maine, 1991). The exhibition continues the museum's street photography cycle launched in 2015 with Vivian Maier and continued with Garry Winogrand, in collaboration with Anne Morin of diChroma photography. Abbott moved from Ohio to New York at age twenty, meeting Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray. She followed Man Ray to Paris as his assistant until 1926, photographing cultural figures including Eugène Atget, James Joyce, Solita Solano, and André Gide. In 1926 she opened her own studio and met Atget, whose archive she acquired. Returning to New York during the Great Depression, she spent a decade documenting the city, publishing the landmark book Changing New York in 1939, which includes her iconic image of the Flatiron Building. In 1940, Abbott became picture editor at Science Illustrated, shifting her focus to scientific photography. Her images of a Van de Graaff generator and soap bubbles combine formal rigor with scientific communication. Her Light Trough Prism (1958–61) may have inspired Storm Thorgerson's cover for Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon (1973). The retrospective runs alongside solo shows by Jennifer West and Leonardo Boscani.