180 - Eugène ATGET (1857–1927)

Eugène ATGET (1857–1927) Porte de Montreuil, Ragpickers (20th arrondissement), 1913 A mustachioed ragpicker wearing a cap and a vest poses in front of his cart loaded with sacks; a second man stands behind him; a small child sits on the ground; two dogs; and there are wooden shacks and fences. Silver print 18.2 x 23.8 cm Inscription on the reverse: Annotations in ink, written upside down: “Porte de Montreuil 1913. (20th)” ; in pencil: “Photo 22,” “Photo 3” (crossed out), framing sketch with marker “1),” crossed-out numbers “10” [?] and “2)” Provenance: former collection of Jean-Marie Drot 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.