Broadway and Broome Street, Manhattan

Berenice Abbott made this photograph of Broadway and Broome Street in Manhattan. It’s a black and white image with a high contrast and a clear tonal range. What grabs me here is the density of information, the sheer amount of detail in the architecture. Look at the fire escapes clinging to the buildings, like metal vines! Or the building in the center; the way it looms, filling the frame, a real monolith. The way the buildings seem to converge in the distance creates such a dramatic perspective, as if the city itself is a character in a play. Abbott's work reminds me of Eugène Atget. Both were documenting a city in transformation. It’s as if they're saying, “Look, this is here now, but it might not be tomorrow.” Photography does that, it freezes a moment, but it also reminds us that everything is always changing.