Chris Kroupa

11/20/2015
st
1
Hour Daly

Eugne Atget
Photographer Eugne atget was born on February 12, 1857 in Libourne
France. He was born and became an orphan at a very young. Since he had virtually
no family, Atget went on to become a sailor. But that didn't last long. He soon
became an actor. But at the age of forty, he quit the stage and began photography.
Eugnes photography style included preserving the culture of early life in Paris
France before the major modernization of the city. His goal was to make visual
documents to preserve tradition, lifestyles, and architecture of early Paris. Eugne
atget died on August 4, 1927 in Paris France where he lived most of his life.
Eugne would walk around the city virtually unnoticeable and took
photographs of the physical streets and building and shops. This was very
uncommon in this era because nobody cared to have a photo of a street corner on
their wall. Everyone else was more concerned in getting photos of people close to
them. We are lucky that Atget took the photo he did, Because now we can see what
life was like before our time.
I choose this photographer mainly because he was a man who didnt have
much, who had a rough life, and still wanted to take photos of the city for everyone
else in the future. Because of his work we can look back at his era. Another reason
Atget stuck out to me was because of everything of his was either in black and
white or a slight brown tone. I personally like black and white photography and older
architecture/life before the 1930s.
I also like how much he was an out of the box thinker with everything. Instead
of giving up with his childhood dreams he continued on to do what he loved, to act
on the stage! Most people with his circumstances would be those depressing life
stories where an orphan kid never had parents or children to play with and was
homeless their whole life. And while everyone during this period was mainly taking
portraits with no smiles, he said no. And turned the camera away from the people
and down the street.

Works Cited
Eugene Atget."
/ Biography & Images
. Fine Art / Photography & Photographers
Directory, n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2015.
"Atget: The Art of Documentary Photography National Gallery of Art, Washington."
Atget: The Art of Documentary Photography
. National Gallery of Art, Washington DC,
2015. Web. 20 Nov. 2015.