All European cities, all with beautiful architecture, different cultures and distinctive social qualities. These cities have their own individual style, and are constantly developing – even if not immediately obvious.
Eugene Atget saw all of these assets in Paris, he wanted to preserve their place in history, documenting the city’s changes, the people and the way of life. I have a similar outlook, each time I travel, I am armed with my camera, eager to capture a location in various ways, in a different light, in all its glory, or through the eyes of a foreigner. An example of this is my image above, captured in Venice, much to my touristic amazement, documenting construction work being carried out, via a builders boat. I visit these cities for a small amount of time, whereas Atget lived in Paris.
Eugene was born in Dordogne, France, on the 12th February 1857. His parents died when he was a child, he was brought up by his mothers parents from then on. in 1879 Atget moved to Paris to pursue a career in acting, which eventually deemed unsuccessful, moved to Montparnasse and two years on, 1897, starts photographing the city. Unfortunately the photographer did not get the recognition he deserved in regards to his work, until years after he passed away. When his loved ones cleared out his studio after his passing, they gave his archived images and negatives to the Monuments Historiques in the city, who later sold them to Bernice Abbott and Julien Levy, in 1969 MoMa bought the collection.
The image lower right titled Fruit and Vegetable shop, was captured by Atget in 1925. Although the image was taken with intention of documentation, it is visually pleasing, and technically perfect. The image has a large depth, allowing the audience to indulge in the detail of the piece. Comparative to my image, lower left, is the content, captured at La Rambla’s La Boqueria Market in Barcelona. Although this piece has a much smaller depth of field, in order to focus on a particular produce, but similarly documenting the present.
BADGER, G. 2001. Eugene Atget: 55. London: Phaidon Press
KRASE, A. 2001. Icons: Eugene Atget’s Paris. Colone: Taschen
Chloe Robertson Visual Exploration 