170 - Eugène ATGET (1857–1927)

Eugène ATGET (1857–1927) Porte d'Asnières, Cité Valmy, ragpickers (17th arrondissement), 1913 A cobblestone alley lined with walls: handcarts loaded with sacks and crates; a ragpicker in the background amid bundles, puddles, and scattered pieces of paper. Silver print 18.2 x 23.8 cm Inscription on the reverse: Annotation in ink: “Porte d’Asnières, Cité Valmy 1913—ragpickers.” Provenance: former Jean-Marie Drot collection Born in Libourne in 1857, Eugène Atget was a sailor and then an actor before devoting himself to photography around 1890. Settling on Rue Campagne-Première, he produced “documents for artists” and photographed old Paris for nearly forty years: streets, courtyards, storefronts, signs, small trades, parks, and interiors. His thousands of photographs were acquired by the National Library, the Carnavalet Museum, and the Monuments Historiques, which saw them as a record 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.