Description:
restaurant window with menu painted on window, man coming up stairs of barber shop in center, barber pole at right
Label Text:
Blossom Restaurant, 103 Bowery prominently features human figures. Abbott rarely included people in her photographs, but when she did include them, she did so conscientiously. To create this photograph, Abbott set up her camera and waited for people to enter the frame—a tactic she employed frequently. The resulting photograph captures a moment of people routinely and unconsciously interacting with text in their environment. While these two businesses, Blossom Restaurant and the shop of Jimmy the Barber, loudly boast what they offer and at what reasonable prices—three large pork chops or a lady’s haircut for thirty cents—we do not see any customers at either establishment. The absence of patrons is evidence of the economic hard times. Jimmy the Barber (center) and his assistant further encapsulate the somber mood of the Great Depression, appearing hapless and fatigued.
MD, PHOTOdocument exhibition, March 30, 2012-July 22, 2012
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+1998.195 |
