The French photographer Eugène Atget (1857–1927) produced documentary photography that
was far removed from the frontier of photojournalism. During a working life that lasted from
1890 to 1927, Atget produced 10,000 images of Paris, working with a large format 24x18cm
wooden camera and making and coating his own large glass plate negatives. Atget cared deeply
about the small traders, street musicians, actors, artists, ribbon sellers, etc., who were being
squeezed out of their livings by modernisation. He also cared for the architecture of the republic,
much of which was crumbling and in a state of squalor, just waiting to be demolished. Atget
was motivated more by the need to re-create, preserve and document the old city’s existence
than by a desire to create imagery for sale.
It’s not difficult to imagine these
works as paintings. (Compare Atget’s
Bitumiers with Gustave Caillebotte’s The
Floor Scrapers, for example.) You’ll find
more Atget images in the Bridgeman
Art Library. Follow the link on the OCA
student website. Some of Atget’s work
showed surrealist elements. Look at his
famous ‘corset shop’ photograph, for
example.
Project Photography as art
Water Lilies Eugène Atget. Not Paris this time, but recognisably
in a fine art tradition i.e. Monet.
Bitumiers