St. Paul’s Chapel, Broadway between Fulton and Vesey Streets, Manhattan 1938

Berenice Abbott shot this gelatin silver print of St. Paul’s Chapel, somewhere between Fulton and Vesey Streets in Manhattan. I love the dark and moody tones; it makes me think about the contrast between old and new in New York City. I think about what Abbott might have been thinking while composing the photograph. She’s framing the old chapel against the backdrop of a taller, more modern skyscraper. You can see the older building dwarfed in the background, like a ghost of an older New York. Abbott had a keen eye for detail, and her urban documentary shows the rapid changes that were taking place in the city during her lifetime. Photography is a different medium to painting, but I think the artistic decisions are similar. She’s composing a statement about a specific time and place, and how the old always lingers within the new.