Eugène Atget

With the marvelous lens of dream and surprise, Atget “saw” (that is to say, photographed) practically everything about him, in and outside of Paris, with the vision of a poet. --Berenice AbbottAtget's photographs are unparalleled in their lucid realism and lyrical response to the pulse of the city and to the artifacts of human life in almost every social class. His images of parks, lakes, shop windows, vendors, prostitutes, buildings, sculpture and Paris street scenes go beyond documentation to a poetic vision of an era. Atget created some of the most beautifully articulated images of light and space ever made with a camera.