k i don't use this blog very often. actually the only time i used it was for a school assignment. so hit me up at xanga.com/iamraymond

Eugène Atget

In section 6 of the article “The Work Of Art In The Age Of Mechanical Reproduction”, Walter Benjamin gives reference to the photographer Eugène Atget. Benjamin mentions his photographs of the empty streets of Paris because though they are meant to be pieces of art, their portrayal is similar to that of a crime scene. The pictures stir the emotion of the audience in a one dimensional and very specific approach; “free-floating contemplation is not appropriate to them” ¹ .

Eugène Atget (1857-1927) was born in the town of Libourne, France and was rasied by an uncle since his parents died when he was still young. After traveling as a cabin boy and sailor throughout his adolescent years, Atget entered the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts in Paris in 1879. He studied acting for two years and later became an actor with minor roles in theatre and touring companies. Though he was talented he was never successful. However this time spent acting was not at a complete loss as he met the actress Valentine Delfosse, who became his photographic assistant and lived with him for the rest of his life. Realizing that he had no future as an actor, he tried in 1897 to become a painter. When this was unsuccessful he began his career as a photographer at the age of 40.

Most of his photographs were those of Paris streets and though none of his photographs were portraits, he did take still photos of street characters such as peddlers and road workers. His photos of Paris streets were so extensive that he was able to create a methodical survey of the old quarters of the city consisting of 10,000 images. Through the next 30 years of his life he added to this survey with his simple equipment consisting of an 18 X 24 cm bellows camera, rectilinear lenses, a wooden tripod, and a few plate holders. To hold an income, Atget set up an business named “Documents pour artistes” where he sold his carefully cataloged images to stage designers, art craftsmen, interior decorators, and painters. Atget’s work was hugely understated and unappreciated. However there were few who considered his work to have a pure vision and a deceptive simplicity. In 1920 he sold 2500 negatives (which spanned the past two decades) to Caisse National des Monuments Historiques. With the money that he received, he set out to produce his last and finest photographs.

In 1926 Man Ray, Atget’s neighbour, published a few of Atget’s photos in La revolution surrealíste magazine. This led to the long awaited appreciation of his photographs. Berenice Abbott, a student of Man Ray, was so in awe of his work that in 1925 she embarked on a mission to rescue his work from obscurity and preserve his prints and negatives. Abbot received the prints when Atget died in 1927. She wrote “He will be remembered as an urbanist historian, a genuine romanticist, a lover of Paris, a Balzac of the camera, from whose work we can weave a large tapestry of French civilization.”