North and South: Berenice Abbott’s U.S. Route 1
June 9–October 8, 2017
The Wolfsonian–FIU @ 1001 Washington Avenue
In 1954, photographer Berenice Abbott journeyed along the length of U.S. Route 1, capturing the road, its towns, and inhabitants. From Florida motels made from buses to Maine potato farmers, Abbott memorialized communities up and down the East Coast. During the trip, Abbott shot more than four hundred 8x10-inch photographs, and over two thousand smaller images using her Rolleiflex camera, representing her largest portfolio of photographs devoted to a single subject. North and South brought together a selection of 50 works from this series to present a singular visual summary of American life during the mid-1950s.
The exhibition was organized by the Syracuse University Art Collection and presented in tandem with The Long Road to Now: Digital Photos Inspired by Berenice Abbott's Road Trip, an installation of contemporary photography developed in partnership with Instagram forum #JJ Community.