Abbott (top) and S.K.F. Industries, Inc.    (Photo: Berenice Abbott/Commerce Graphics/Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art (top); courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art)

2. Industrial Beauty
Soap Bubbles, Berenice Abbott (1946) and Steel Balls, S.K.F. Industries, Inc. (circa 1934)
Some of the echo here is formal, based on the spherical shapes. But, Muniz says, the steel balls are “my favorite … I love ball bearings. When you put lots of them together, they are quite beautiful, almost magical.” Abbott, too, often looked for beauty in tough industrial objects, like the Manhattan Bridge, or simply unexpected ones. “I wanted this picture … from the start,” says Muniz. “I curated a show at the Met about science and art in photography, and I found her work completely staggering.”