Eugene Atget:

Engene Atget is a documentary photographer who documented all of the

architecture and the streets of Paris before Paris got modernized. His
photographs varied from showing narrow lanes and courtyards in the historicity
centre with its old buildings, some of which at the time were soon to be
demolished. He photographed bridges and quays on the banks of Seine and
shops with their window display inside.
In addition to photographing architecture and the environment around him, he
also photographed small tradesmen, rag collectors and prostitutes, as well as
fairs and other popular amusements in the various districts of Paris. It was also
said by another photographer Mann Ray that Atgets photographs had a dada or
surrealist quality about them.
Techniques that Atget had used were long exposures and you can tell this in his
photographs due to the wispy, drawn-out light in his photographs. He also used a
fairly wide view which would suggest space in his photographs instead of looking
for particular details and he intentionally used a limited range of scenes avoiding
the busyness of Paris which was around every corner. The emptiness of most of
the streets in his photographs and sometimes the blurred figures in them are
partly due to the fact that he used a long shutter speed which required that
many of his photographs be taken in the early morning hours before people were
out and before traffic has started.
In his photographs you can see that his photographs have vignetting in some
corners of them due to the fact that he had to reposition the lens relative to the
plate of the camera as a way to be able to correct the perspective and control
the image.
I think what is communicated in his work was the emptiness of one of the most
beautiful cities and busiest cities today and just the urban-ness of Paris. But to
also capture what Paris looked like before it has become the city that we all know
today.
Atgets work has influenced me as this is partly what I want to do in this
assignment; to look at the architecture of buildings around Central London,
looking at how they are unique to the building and trying to find empty, deserted
streets of London and will probably be creating something similar to Atget.