Eugene Atget

Eugene Atget was a French photographer born in 1857 (http://www.nga.gov/feature/atget/bio.shtm). In 1898 he began photographing and documenting 'Old Paris' as he noticed it was rapidly changing and modernizing around him. He looked at old shops, houses, streets and churches; he also focused on 'architectural ornamentation, including doors, stairways, door knockers, and mantelpieces' (http://www.nga.gov/feature/atget/bio.shtm).


As it is hard to find out much about Atget and his work I thought it best to include his own views of his work (extract taken from an article on http://www.nga.gov/feature/atget/bio.shtm) "In a letter to the minister of fine arts, he wrote, "For more than 20 years I have been working alone and of my own initiative in all the old streets of Old Paris to make a collection of 18 x 24 [centimetre] photographic negatives: artistic documents of beautiful urban architecture from the 16th to the 19th centuries. . . . Today this enormous artistic and documentary collection is finished; I can say I possess all of Old Paris."  


From what I have discovered he is a very modest man who did not over indulge himself in luxury he wore middle class clothes and ate simple meals- he had no connection to material possessions. The only thing he indulged in was his passion, his photography. Because of this you can see the pure honesty and modesty shining through his work. 

(http://fantomatik75.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/paris-fantome-eugene-atget.html)

This is one of my favourite photographs of his, I like that it is of a real shop in a real street that was once running and part of peoples lives. There is nothing fake and unnecessary about it, it is pure documentation that has a humble fondness to it. 






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References:
-http://www.nga.gov/feature/atget/bio.shtm
-http://fantomatik75.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/paris-fantome-eugene-atget.html