The Paris of Atget

Atget never called himself a photographer; he called himself an author-producer and his photographs, documents.

Painters in turn-of-the-century Paris would buy his documents for very reasonable prices to use as studies for their paintings.

Berenice Abbot procured a number of negatives from Atget's studio in 1925 and made prints of them; otherwise his great achievement might have gone unnoticed.

His first name was Eugene. He was born in Libourne near Bordeaux in 1857 and died in Paris in 1927. His father was a carriage-maker.

Eugene acted in small professional troupes in rural France and then in Paris and thought himself more an actor than a photographer; he quit acting at age 40.

No one's sure how he made a living, though he did receive several commissions from city departments.

His step-son Leon, son of his longtime companion Valentine, died in the trenches of World War I.