Tuesday, January 23, 2018

North and South: Berenice Abbott's U.S. Route 1
Syracuse University Art Museum

Price: Free
Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

This exhibition of 50 images visualizes Berenice Abbott's summer journey in 1954 along the length of U.S. Route 1. Beginning in New York City, she and two companions traveled south to Key West. From there, she turned around and drove north to the highway's terminus in Fort Kent, Maine, arriving in September. During the trip Abbott made more than 400 8" x 10" photographs, and more than 2,000 smaller images using her Rollieflex camera. These represent her largest portfolio of photographs devoted to a single subject and have gone largely unrecognized. Abbott captured the road, its towns, and inhabitants at their best and their worst. From Florida motels made from buses to Maine potato farmers, Abbott finds distinguishing characteristics of the area she is photographing.