Even with only one solitary pedestrian in the classic photo above, we sense and see - in our mind's eye - the generations of New Yorkers who built and maintain this fabulous city. We see this because Abbott saw it with her mind's eye as she composed this magnificent image of the canyons of lower Manhattan.
...Abbott's own words on the necessity for photographers to summon "a creative emotion."
"Unless you see the subject first, you won't be able to force the camera ...to see the picture for you. But if you have seen the picture with your flexible human vision, then you will be on the road to creating with the camera, a vision equivalent to your own."
Abbott succeeded so well in matching heightened perception with exacting practice behind the camera that it is easy to overlook the sheer magnitude of her achievement.
Ed Voves
[http://arteyewitness.blogspot.com/2018/06/art-eyewitness-book-review-berenice.html]