123 - Eugène ATGET (1857–1927)

Eugène ATGET (1857–1927) Marché des Carmes, Place Maubert, a shoe merchant’s stall (5th arrondissement), 1910–1912 Shoe merchant’s stall: rows of ankle boots and shoes on slanted boards, clogs and a bucket on the cobblestones, a sign reading “Ferentin [?],” and the shutters of the covered market above; the National Library’s stamp is visible in the image. Silver print 23.8 x 18.2 cm Inscription on the reverse: Pencil annotations: “Marché des Carmes, Place Maubert. 1910–1912 / Gelatin-citrate print from a glass negative, BNF Oa 173a. / “Trades, Shops, and Market Stalls of Paris” series / “Shoe Store” Provenance: former Jean-Marie Drot collection Born in Libourne in 1857, Eugène Atget worked as a sailor and then as an actor before devoting himself to photography around 1890. Settling on Rue Campagne-Première, he produced “documents for artists” and spent nearly forty years photographing old Paris: streets, courtyards, storefronts, signs, small trades, parks, and interiors. His thousands of photographs were acquired by the National Library, the Carnavalet Museum, and the Historic Monuments department, which saw them as an inventory of a city in the process of disappearing. Man Ray and the Surrealists, followed by Berenice Abbott—who saved a large portion of his collection—revealed the poetic dimension of his work. He died in Paris in 1927 and is considered one of the fathers of modern documentary photography.