Eugene Atget was a ground breaking photographer and great businessman born in Libourne, Gironde, France in the year 1857. His father built carriages and both parents died when Eugene Atget was very young. He was raised by his mother’s grandparents. Atget took more than 10,000 photographs of Paris!
In this clip we view a montage of images and short documentary of Eugene Atget:
Atget joined the merchant marines after finishing high school. During this time he also enrolled in acting class, Atget had to quit due to his marine service. He continued to work on his acting by joining an acting club and being a street art performer. He quit acting as his vocal chords went bad.
In 1890 Atget began to earn a living as a professional photographer. He would shoot items that he knew would be sought after by painters. Museums would pay the artist to go shoot his renown Paris street scenes before they would vanish.
In 1898 he started shooting his famous street scenes of Paris. The artist would see the landscapes to any artist that wished to paint Paris. He was the first to offer this service. Before Flickr or Pinterest, the world had Eugene Atget. Much like the painters of Paris from Galien-Laloue to Antoine Blanchard, Atget had a goal of capturing the older and romantic look of Paris during 1800s and early 1900s.
The artist stopped shooting for the most part during the first world war and had a son die during the conflict.
Atget was able to make a large amount of wealth from his photographs and even did a series on prostitutes.
Eugene Atget passed away in 1927.
Price range information: Most works priced between $2,000 and $10,000.
Below another montage of images by Eugene Atget:
What a great businessman and artist. I love to compare the photography of Eugene Atget with the painters of Paris like Cortes, Dabo, or Antoine Blanchard. Many photographs were made using albumen, which gives them a tremendous sense of atmosphere.
D
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