4 eugene atget

P a r is a s itWa s

Born: February 12, 1857

Died: August 4, 1927 Painter, actor, before

photographer Concerned with

photographing Paris as it was not as it was becoming.

He was the maker of a great visual catalogue of the fruits of French culture, as it survived in and near Paris in the first quarter of the 20th century. He was in addition a photographer of such authority and originality that his work remains a bench mark against which much of the most sophisticated contemporary photography measures itself.

pictures were often sold to painters as studies.

did not receive recognition during his lifetime.

Recorded images in and around Versailles.

Angle of view was very important to Atget.

Made many different exposures of same subject to get best angle view.

Eembraced the emerging art of photography.

Set for himself a goal to document every aspect of French civilization which he considered artistic or picturesque.

Laboring alone and in relative obscurity for 25 years,

3,500 photographs of the architecture, decoration and scenic urban life of Paris.

Considered the quintessential views of Paris at the turn of the nineteenth century.

He succeeded in looking beyond photography and found the essence of things.

This enabled him to express himself in a totally personal way and distinguish himself from his contemporaries.

Breaking from the rigid and uninspired conventions of his time, Atget rejected both the panoramic and the bird's eye view.

In his photographs, the architecture is seen from the perspective of a pedestrian, allowing the specific character of the building to be isolated and savored.

Where others had generalized and summarized, Atget revealed what was specific and unique.