In Focus: Eugene Atget : Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum

Baldwin, Gordon; Atget, Eugene

ISBN 10: 089236601X / ISBN 13: 9780892366019

Published by J. Paul Getty Museum, 2000

Seller Inventory # ICV.089236601X.N

Synopsis:

Parisian photographer Eugene Atget (1857-1927) set out to capture those commonplace features that were gradually disappearing from the city he loved. Only towards the end of his 30-year career was his genius recognized. This volume contains 50 Atget works with comprehensive captions and an edited colloquium on his life and work by seven scholars.

Review: In this day and age we have pretty much taken photography for granted as an integral part of everyday life. There is the immediacy of Polaroids and the limitlessness of disposable cameras, which makes a picture taken today a distant cousin to the practice of early photography. Occasionally we need reminding of the roots of photographic image making: the glass plates, hand-coated emulsion and massive amounts of other accoutrements that were needed to make one image. In Atget, a selection from the lifetime work of legendary French photographer Eugene Atget (1857-1927), we enter the world of early 20th-century photography, which was beginning to bid farewell to the hand-crafted picture.

Atget was poised on the cusp between the techniques and materials of early photography and the moment things began to change and modern photography was born. From a laborious and time-consuming process came a much faster method that changed the nature of photography forever. Seemingly overnight the photograph went from something precious to something on its way to being accessible to all. Atget was among the first generation to photographically capture the world of ordinary citizens. While the subject matter was new, Atget was nevertheless steeped in the tradition of the old-world photograph. A crooked doorknocker is captured with loving attention to detail, an air of preciousness still present. Spindly trees, store windows, public gardens... each picture is delicate and romantic. It makes you wonder if absolutely everything was more beautiful in France. Included are insightful commentaries for each of the 100 tritone photographs and five duotones, plus a really great introduction by John Szarkowski, former Director of the Department of Photography at the MOMA. --J.P. Cohen

Bibliographic Details

Title: In Focus: Eugene Atget : Photographs from ...
Publisher: J. Paul Getty Museum
Publication Date: 2000
Binding: Soft cover
Condition: new