Eugene Atget

Eugene Atget was a famous photographer that dedicated his life to take pictures of the city Paris for thirty years. Eugene Atget was born in Bordeaux in eighteen-fifty-six. His uncle brought him up because he was an orphan. At an early age Eugene Atget was shipped out to sea working as a cabin boy. After he finished being a cabin boy he decided he wanted to be an actor. He got a few jobs acting usually playing the role of a villain because his physical appearance made it suite him.

After a little while he found that acting was not rewarding enough for himself and turned to art and painting. When he didn't exceed in that he turned to photography. Assuming he had experience in drama, observations and travel, his main goal was to photograph the monuments of Paris like: sites, houses, streets, chateaux and subjects about to disappear. He then found that he was not getting any more rewarding in photography then in acting, but he stuck to taking photos and soon got some recognition for some of his work .

Eugene Atget started selling his work, but when World War Two started in 1914 Atget was afraid of it and people started assuming he was a spy or a lunatic. Atget then stopped selling his photographs (which was a tragedy because his photos are so meaningful). When Eugene Atget died in 1927 he got little understanding of his work and little recognition of it, the archives of the Palais Royale bought some of his plates for their record value but at very low prices. In a way Eugene Atget didn't express himself to the public understanding and was forgotten.

Even though Eugene Atget was forgotten about after he died, he is now seen as a brilliant artist photographer. His pictures teach us a lot about Paris but they can also teach us about composition rules and moods.

My favorite picture by Eugene Atget is:

(couldn't put on my post) The URL for the Image is http://www.eastman.org/fm/atget/htmlsrc/m197601090009_ful.html#topofimage

What I like about this picture is the diminishing perspective.

My other pictures URL is http://www.masters-of-photography.com/A/atget/atget_coin_full.html


(sorry about the inconvenience if you have any questions just ask me!?!


Links:

http://www.masters-of-photography.com/A/atget/atget.html

http://www.eastman.org/fm/atget/htmlsrc/index.html