Inspired by Eugène Atget’s photographs of a disappearing Paris, in which she found “the real world, seen with wonderment and surprise,” Berenice Abbott set out to chronicle the look and life of New York City. Her decade-long project, which began in 1929 after an eight-year sojourn in Paris, culminated in her 1940 book Changing New York. At the Pilgrim Pentecostal Church of God, a storefront church in Harlem, Abbott brought together in a single picture her interest in New York’s architecture, people, and activities. Reverend Elder Johnson, seen descending the church steps, was pastor to the congregation’s 28 members.