182 - Eugène ATGET (1857–1927)

Eugène ATGET (1857–1927) Porte de Choisy, Zoniers’ Camp (13th arrondissement), 1913 A cart covered with patched canvas, with overturned chairs and baskets in front of it; a trailer with shutters and shacks in the background; a muddy vacant lot. Silver print 18.2 x 23.8 cm Inscription on the reverse: Annotations: “Porte de Choisy 1913 (13th)” in ink; in pencil: “(c) BNF print 1959” 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.