Charles Marville, Rue des Sept-Voies from the rue Saint. Hilaire (with Pantheon), 1865–69, albumen print from wet-collodion-on-glass negative on lithographed mount. The Clark, lent by the Troob Family Foundation, TR2002.58

During periods of rapid change in cities, photography proved a valuable tool to record moments throughout the process. The photographers Charles Marville and Berenice Abbott witnessed the urban development of Paris and New York, respectively. In both artists’ photography, there is a tension between the old and the new. Architectural markers of the past like the Pantheon in Paris or Trinity Church in New York compete with imminent urban change. Marville and Abbott capitalized on photography’s archival potential: using it not to resist progress, but to record these transformative moments in their cities’ histories for the years to come.