On the Street and in the Studio

The catalogue for a two-part exhibition that presents more than sixty compelling photographs-including prints by Eugene Atget and Berenice Abbott-exploring major themes in modern photography, donated by leading photography specialist and dealer Howard Greenberg.

The history of photography concerns its materiality as much as its imagery. The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at the State University of New York at New Paltz is firmly engaged with this history of reinvention. Nearly half of the collection came to the museum from a single source: photography specialist and dealer Howard Greenberg. On the Street and in the Studio documents the enormous contribution made by Greenberg in building a collection of nineteenth- and twentieth-century photography at the Dorsky Museum. The catalogue includes an essay by curator Daniel Belasco that surveys the strengths and characteristics of the collection. An interview with Howard Greenberg sheds light on how he collects photographs and chooses to present them to institutions. The portfolio section features images of both the photographic images and reverse sides of nineteen prints in the collection by Eugene Atget, Berenice Abbott, James Van Der Zee, Margaret Bourke-White, and others, revealing how there is as much relevant information on the back as on the picture itself, an insight made available for students and the general public.