Chelsea Hotel, West 23rd Street Between 7th and 8th Avenues, Manhattan 1936

Editor: So, here we have Berenice Abbott's 1936 gelatin-silver print, "Chelsea Hotel, West 23rd Street Between 7th and 8th Avenues, Manhattan." It's quite a stark image; all those repeated balconies give a feeling of density. What's your read on it? Curator: Abbott's photograph captures more than just a building. It's a document of a changing urban landscape in the 1930s. How do you think this image speaks to the social context of the time? Editor: Well, with the Depression happening, maybe it's showing the resilience of the city, capturing a specific moment. Curator: Precisely. The Chelsea Hotel itself was a cultural hub, a melting pot for artists and writers. By photographing it, Abbott is immortalizing a significant piece of New York's cultural identity, while also demonstrating a shifting landscape. Editor: It makes you wonder who lived there at that time and what the space looked like for them on the inside. Curator: Exactly, and it points towards the hotel as a site of creative production, and more generally as a place in which social networks solidify into art movements. Think about the way Abbott’s image contrasts the ornate balconies with the austere reality of the Depression era. Does that contrast evoke anything for you? Editor: Definitely. It makes you consider who has access to what during that time. Some things changed, and some things stayed the same. So, taking into account how the Depression transformed our world, Abbott documented what it was actually like on a smaller, building scale. Curator: And, her photographic choices, the stark black and white, the unflinching realism, it all contributes to a narrative about urban life and social structures. What I take away is a fresh perspective on photography and the way photographs capture, document, and transform social life. Editor: Definitely, the building seems monumental and, somehow, intimate at the same time!