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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 2, 2010 15:59:30 GMT
There is a travel piece in the NYTimes about Atget's Paris, including a video of Ed Alcock's contemporary images of Paris taken by following the examples of Eugène Atget: hereThe article states: To take advantage of the light and the empty streets, Atget often worked in the early morning. But the still, timeless quality of his images was also enhanced by his camera; its long exposures meant that any people in the background were captured as little more than blurs. The result was over 10,000 images, often devoid (or seemingly devoid) of people, showcasing the city’s streets, buildings, their decorative architectural details, storefronts and parks.
Atget left aside the postcard images — the Eiffel Tower, the grand boulevards — to other photographers. He had another agenda. Paris’s glory lies in its details, best brought to one’s attention without the distraction of passers-by, and Atget recorded those as he sought to capture everything, from stairwells and door knockers to winding streets.But another purpose of the NYTimes piece is to present a tour of Paris as Atget saw it, starting in the Fourth and Fifth Arrondissements: While during daylight hours Paris is a city that must be shared, at dawn it belongs to a lucky few. And in a city that maintains a strong reverence for its past, many of the settings Atget so loved still exist, untouched. An early-morning tour — beginning, say, at 6 a.m. — allows anyone to inhabit them.From Wikipedia:Atget settled in Paris in the 1890s. Despite his limited background in the visual arts, he saw photography as a source of income, selling his photographs to artists in the nearby town of Montparnasse. He advertised his photographs as "documents for artists." By the mid-1890s, Atget bought his first camera and began to photograph more than 10,000 images of the people and sights of the French capital. By 1899, he had moved to Montparnasse, where he lived and earned a modest income until his death in 1927.
Between 1897 and 1927 Atget captured the old Paris in his pictures. His photographs show the city in its various facets: narrow lanes and courtyards in the historic city center with its old buildings, of which some were soon to be demolished, magnificent palaces from the period before the French Revolution, bridges and quays on the banks of the Seine, and shops with their window displays. He photographed stairwells and architectural details on the façades and took pictures of the interiors of apartments. His interest also extended to the environs of Paris. full article here Click on this picture for a wonderful gallery of Atget's photographs:  |
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Post by Jazz on Oct 7, 2010 0:39:34 GMT
The New York Times article is a decent introduction to the photographic legacy of Eugene Atget. Given that he took over 10,000 photos, it is only a glimpse of the body of his work. Eugene Atget lived from 1857-1927 and was a contemporary of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, the painter, 1841-1919. The simplest and most exceptional rendering of this period of history, with its’ stunning shifts, is described eloquently in the biography ‘ Renoir, My Father, by Jean Renoir, pages 21-24. We know little of Atget as an individual. From what I have read, he certainly did not think of himself as an ‘artist’. The late-bloomers of the world can look to Atget for inspiration, ..... ]‘Born in the French city of Libourne, he was orphaned at seven years old and was raised by his uncle. In the 1870s after finishing his education, Atget briefly became a sailor and cabin boy on liners in the Transatlantic. After his tour of duty, Atget became an actor, more specifically, a bit player, for a second-rate repertory company, but without much success. He finally settled in Paris as a painter-turned-photographer in the 1890s. Despite Atget's limited background in the visual arts, he saw photography as a good source of income, selling his photographs to artists in the nearby town of Montparnasse. He advertised his photographs as "documents for artists." It was common practice at the time for painters to paint scenes from photographs. In 1898, Atget bought his first camera (he was 41) and began to photograph more than 10,000 images of the people and sights of the French capital'.....
‘ We can thank Man Ray and especially, Berenice Abbott, a young American photographer, for the legacy of his work. Both recognized the enduring value of Atget’s body of work with their artistic sensibilities. Berenice (a much younger contemporary of Atget and student of Man Ray), rescued many of his photos and preserved them for us. … 'When his neighbor, the American surrealist, Man Ray asked him if he could include some of his prints in an avante-garde journal, Atget demanded that his name not be mentioned.
Yet, as it appears to the legion of great artist/photographers that revered him, it was the very innocence and denial of his personal "specialness" that allows his photographic subjects to speak through him, as if through a dream'.....But, beyond his ‘pragmatic’ photos to ‘pay the bills’, it did seem important to Atget to capture much of daily Paris before it was destroyed by ‘progress’….buildings, street corners, glimpses of daily life, shop windows, artisans and street people, trees and parks. His work was original and remains today the ‘bar ‘ to which more sophisticated but superficial work is compared. He resolutely marched out there and photographed ‘moments’ which are now precious to us. The only existing record of this moment of Parisian history. Dawn was his most loved time to photograph…still, beautiful, with few people. Even then, (the first 20 years of the 20th century), he was considered ‘old-fashioned’ and ‘passe’. If not for Berenice Abbott, much of his work would have been lost to obscurity. She thought of him as the photographic ‘Balzac’. I like this and agree. Atget’s legacy is over 10,000 photographs of Paris from 1900-1927. Many of his subjects no longer exist, indeed, did not exist after 1927. But, what is also fascinating is that many other of his ‘Paris moments’ do remain today, almost untouched, a century later. I think he had a remarkable sense of enduring value and beauty and an appreciation of the simple, daily moment. This thread of Kerouac’s shows a similar appreciation of the simple and enduring moment, now and then, anyportinastorm.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=paris&action=display&thread=3648&page=1One of Berenice Abbott's books on Atget, www.amazon.com/Berenice-Abbott-Eug%C3%A8ne-Atget-Worswick/dp/1892041634Here are 3 videos, if you want to have a more comprehensive sense of his work, a site, www.atgetphotography.com/The-Photographers/Eugene-Atget.html |
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Post by Jazz on Oct 7, 2010 1:04:21 GMT
My Atget moment...not long ago, I found myself wandering along the rue Mouffetard in Paris and loved this raised stone sculpture on a wall of a shop, took a photo,  When I came home, I found Atget’s photo of the same stone tree sculpture, taken in 1911,  We can see the erosion of time in the upper centre and right of the tree. I loved that Atget and I both stood in the same spot, were fascinated by the tree and wanted to photograph it. |
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 7, 2010 1:26:46 GMT
Are the "then" photos in Kerouac's thread all Atgets?
Wonderful videos -- thanks!
As for the tree ~~ Wow! Kind of gives you a (good) chill, doesn't it?
Imagine, same impulse was sparked in two people, almost one hundred years apart.
Jazz, I love how you caught the silvery aspect to the tree, as did Atget.
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Post by Jazz on Oct 7, 2010 2:20:55 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 7, 2010 2:58:13 GMT
If you click on the very first link in the OP, then go to the :56 mark in the slide show, you'll see the sixth picture in reply #4: 41, rue Broca, and its present incarnation.
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Post by Jazz on Oct 7, 2010 3:02:25 GMT
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Post by mickthecactus on Oct 7, 2010 12:06:50 GMT
Those are really wonderful pictures and as a dawn afficionado I can really empathise.
I love the world when I'm all on my own................
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Post by Jazz on Oct 8, 2010 13:34:45 GMT
I share your love of dawn, Mickthecactus…silent, pure and beautiful. Most of my days in Paris and elsewhere, begin at this time. What I love about so many of Kerouac’s threads is that he, like Atget, notices and remembers with his photos, the simple, austere and beautiful, often at dawn.
Another thought…The bodies of work of photographers such as Nadar, Atget, Lartigue, Kertesz, Willie Ronis, Brassai, Cartier-Bresson etc. are often dismissed today as ‘cliched’. Their work was unique and original. Their remarkable and enduring art is only now ‘cliched’ because a century of artists has attempted to re-create their unique vision. I appreciate the original works the most.
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