Project I – Martu's Blog

LINK TO PRESENTATION: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1xCa47jWxsh3dY_X18vq55JH9oRcET-5KcYNgay1RZTo/edit?usp=sharing

Eugene Atget was a French Photographer which based his art on the Architecture and the Streets of Paris. The 1880s was a period where photography grew, either profesional and amateur. It had industrial purposes as well as commercial purposes. Throughout his life, he transitioned the end of the 1800s and the early 1900s, “a career that bridged the 19th and 20th century”. Therefore, many of the areas that he photographed were soon changed by the massive modernization projects Paris suffered, Haussmannization. The government generated a drastic change to the city, medieval neighborhoods from Paris were destroyed by the modern avenues and parks.

During his youth Atget was a sailor afterwards he became an actor, after that he became a painter and finally a photographer. He started shooting details and things that worked as inspirations to supply painters, architects and stage designers. He even had categories such as landscapes, animals, flowers, monuments, documents, close up shots and recreations from paintings.

Atget shot using a large format view camera to capture the city un detail. Most of his photographs were taken during dawn. This made the light diffuse and generated wide views that gave a sense of space and ambience.

The Pictures that he creates are made seductivley and deceptively simple. He also adds a mysterious side to his pictures, one of the ways he does this is by not portraying anyone in the picture, with some exceptions. He could achieve this since by taking his pictures really early in the morning.

His works created an impact in society. He was an inspiration for the surrealistic movement and famous photographers such as Walker Evans and Lee Friedlander

I was inspired by the perspective he created in the photographs. Mostly from the street/city ones. I chose two locations. Firstly I went to Upper East and got shots from doors and details from this part of the city. As well as some street perspective ones. Afterwards I decided to go near flatiron building. In here I could play with the diagonal streets and the buildings. On another chance I would have chosen to take this pictures during dawn to experiment the light Atget used and try to create the mystery that he portrayed in the city.