Censored Realities / Changing New York

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Within the research of female and sapphic collaborations in modernity, a recurring theme of erasure in art history emerges, particularly in the case of the 1939 Dutton publication Changing New York by photographer Berenice Abbott and writer Elizabeth McCausland. It is largely unknown that all of McCausland's original captions were rejected by Dutton, which opted for a conservative design approach that stripped her texts down to terse captions, significantly altering their intended meaning. This editing process diminished the relationship between Abbott's images and McCausland's narratives, reducing the photographs to mere illustrations for a city guidebook. Alice Maude-Roxby and Stefanie Seibold discovered the complete original captions, written by McCausland, in the Museum of the City of New York's archive, where they had remained untouched since 1939. These critical texts contextualize the photographs within the political and social climate of the 1930s Depression in the USA. The original vision of Abbott and McCausland sought to elevate both text and photography as equally important in generating meaning and fostering critical reflection. This collaboration highlights the importance of recognizing and preserving the contributions of female artists in art history.