Berenice Abbott was born in New York City, and studied at the Art Students League of New York from the age of 17. In 1924 she moved to Paris, where she worked on a series of surrealistic photographs called "The Americans," that were published in French magazines. In 1930 she left for Mexico, where she began to record Mexican folk life with a view camera, and also took portraits of peasants and Indians. She returned to the United States in 1936 and joined the VII Photo Survey Unit run by Walker Evans
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After a year she quit the unit and moved to France. In 1940 she joined the French army as a photographer and served in North Africa. She returned to the USA in 1942, living first in New York City and then in Los Angeles.
During this period she met Willard Van Dyke, her husband from 1945 until his death in 1991. In 1953 Berenice published her first book, A Life of One's Own, which won a prize from the American Institute of Graphic Arts.