Atget

Book excerpt: This volume presents the essence of the work of the great French photographer Eugène Atget through one hundred carefully selected photographs. Atget devoted more than thirty years of his life to the task of documenting the city of Paris and the surrounding countryside, and in the process created an oeuvre that brilliantly explains the great richness, complexity, and authentic character of his native culture. John Szarkowski, an acknowledged master of the art of looking at photographs, explores the unique sensibilities that made Atget one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century and a vital influence on the development of modern and contemporary photography. The eloquent introductory text and commentaries on Atget’s photographs form an extended essay on the remarkable visual intelligence displayed in these subtle, sometimes enigmatic pictures.