1929

James Joyce

Berenice Abbott

American, 1898 - 1991

The sapphically inclined artist Berenice Abbott arrived in Paris in 1921 and became one of the foremost portrait photographers in the city throughout the next decade, taking photos of the artistic and social elite. Abbott believed that her social interaction and connection with her sitters produced the most authentic and naturalistic representations: she once stated that she possessed "an intuitive sympathy for each person’s uniqueness."

By 1929 the Irish writer James Joyce had a divisive reputation. His novel Ulysses, published earlier in the decade, was believed to contain implied homosexual themes and obscenity, leading to its censorship, banning, and even burning. Here Abbott seems to tap into a resulting exhaustion: Joyce’s outerwear and slumped posture make it seem as though he has just sat down after a tiring excursion, and his weary eyes, glazed expression, and slightly parted lips all suggest that Abbott has caught the author mid-sigh.