"Eugène Atget's images of the city reminded me of when I first came across the turn-of-the-century French photographer's work in a book called 'A Vision of Paris' (1963), which paired more than a hundred of Atget's photographs with passages from Marcel Proust's 'In Search of Lost Time,' and I couldn't quite see them for what they were. There was something about the preciousness of juxtaposing Atget's gorgeous golden prints with Proust's gorgeous language that made me feel as if I were suffocating under all those foulards, drapes, and aesthetics."
Eugène Atget, a turn-of-the-century French photographer, developed a distinctive approach to photography emphasizing specificity and precise observation. His extensive documentation of Paris captures the city's architecture, streets, and details with remarkable clarity and technical skill. Atget's work demonstrates how photography functions as a tool for teaching visual specificity—the ability to see and record particular moments, textures, and compositions with exactitude. His photographs reveal the city's character through careful framing and attention to detail. The exhibition at the I.C.P. showcases how Atget's methodology influenced photographic practice by prioritizing concrete observation over romantic interpretation, establishing photography as a discipline requiring technical precision and deliberate compositional choices.
Read at The New Yorker
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