Her models are photographed in public space yet display a strong sense of privacy. The affection among the couples as well as between Abitbol and her models overwrites the spatial and corporeal boundaries that every photographic image is burdened by. In these pictures, the separation that exists between model and photographer, viewer and subject, here and there, real and its visual representation is canceled by a sensation of proximity and collectivity. This is why Abitbol’s work is fundamentally political – it is not only a practice of photography, but an exercise in human relations, a ritual of togetherness. 

By: Ágnes Berecz

Associate Professor at Christie’s Education

Teacher at the Pratt Institute and The Museum of Modern Art in New York

It was the age of innocence…

A Hot Coney Island Night

“It was 1962 and our transistor radios played the Beach Boys and The Four Seasons. We could hit those high Frankie Valle notes till we turned about 13 and our voices cracked and changed for good. We hung in groups where there was strength in numbers. We were loyal to the block, loyal to the neighborhood, and Brooklyn was our world. We thought we ruled the streets, and never used words like, LOVE, HELP, THANKS. Most of us were poor kids. Jews, Catholics, Italians, Irish, Polish. We could see that our parents were di erent, but we were

all the same. Some called us white trash, but not to our faces. We had our rules. Cursing, cheating, conning were all  ne. Making fun of someone’s heritage or color or race was  ne too, as long as you could take it in return.

We played street games… Winning was everything We played stickball, ring-a-leevio, johnny-on-the-pony, punchball, poison ball, stoopball, single double triple, kings, box ball. We raced from sewer to sewer, jumped  re hydrants, climbed barbed wire topped fences until we spent the last ounce of sweat, or till our Moms stuck their heads out the windows and screamed our names to come home for supper.

As tough as we were, we were still little boys, The girls were even tougher. They had to be I guess? They had crispy crackly hair sprayed hair. They would pop big bubble gum bubbles

in our faces to show us who was boss. Eyes thick with black makeup, lips with white. Man

oh man did they smell sweet, with cheap perfume and scented hair lacquer. When you got close to one…. I mean really close, your blood pressure and the sweet smell would make your head swim. I ask you, what feeling comes close to the  rst time you put your clumsy arms around the slim waist of one of those girls, and drew her near, closer, for that  rst kiss? On her breath may have been, Dentyne, Sen-Sen, Bubble gum, Violets, Chiclets, or milk….. ugh.., and hopefully no cigarettes!

I  nd today, that when the right song comes on the radio, like Under The Boardwalk, or Up On The Roof, I  nd myself back there smelling the salt air and the perfume, on a Coney Island night.”

JK Sinrod

„PRESSING THE BUTTON FOR LIFE MAGAZINE JUST MADE THE WORLD STAND STILL“

A compendium of my work superimposed on historical photojournalism.

Back in 1989, 2011 – 2013, I found this magazine that was my aunts when she lived in Brickell. Her address is still on the label. I left three images untouched: J. R. Eyerman for LIFE “Bwana Devil, opening night,” Nov. 26, 1952; The  rst 3D feature, Paramount Theater, Hollywood; “V-J in Times Square,” taken with a Leica IIIa camera by Alfred Einsenstaedt, August 1945; Dorothea Lange, portrait of Florence Owens Thompson, titled, “Migrant Mother,” February 1936, taken with a Gra ex camera.

The rest are mine. Coney Island, a couple dancing with hats, a couple that just got married, another couple dancing away, Carnegie Hall, a Chelsea Toilet, Horacio and Veronica.

About

Abitbol’s photographs acknowledge the randomness and the richness of the everyday, and affirm its often dislocating density. This is why we are so compelled to look at them often and for long – they make us realize that life is written onto bodies that are driven by desire. 

By: Ágnes Berecz

Associate Professor at Christie’s Education

Teaches at the Pratt Institute and The Museum of Modern Art in New York.