Eugène Atget was a French photographer best known for his photographs of the architecture and streets of Paris. He took up photography in the late 1880s and supplied studies for painters, architects, and stage designers. Atget began shooting Paris in 1898 using a large format view camera to capture the city in detail. Noted for his determination to document all of the street scenes of Paris before their disappearance to modernization, most of his photographs were first published by Berenice Abbott after his death.

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The building being photographed in the image above, is located on the intersection of Rue de Seine and Rue de l’Échaudé. This intersection is located in the sixth arrondissement of the city in the Saint-Germain des Prés neighborhood which is on the left bank, or Rive Gauche. The Rive Gauche is known for its high-end shopping and elegance, and the Saint Germain des Prés neighborhood is specifically known for its rich cultural history. When Atget photographed this building in 1924, the façade was pretty torn up. The exterior of the building appears to be falling apart with parts of the building literally peeling off and whole sections missing. Furthermore, the bottom half of the building is darker than the top half, and there are flyers plastered on the window. There also appears to be a larger poster placed above the window. There is a singular old-fashioned car/lorry on the left. When looking down the two roads on either side of the centre building, the further away it is, the lighter it gets. There are two possibilities of why this is, which is either that the image is over exposed and it looks this way because the sky was very bright OR the weather was bad and there was fog. Which ever side you pick may change your perception slightly. I think that it being fog suits the image well. Its black and white, the walls are worn down and the streets are empty- It adds to the gloomy vibe. It is unknown as to why Atget took all these photographs, but they became a big part of the history of Paris within photography. Looking at these photographs, I think he was trying to capture the essence of old Paris, trying to create the feeling of nostalgia. Perhaps he knew that the world around him was changing once again. In some of his photographs, maybe even claustrophobia- lots of tight spaces and dark alleyways. In this photograph specifically, there are many dark tones that gently splurge into lighter tones.

When I saw this old photograph of Atget’s, I instantly pictured some streets in jersey. I went into google maps and took a screenshot of what place in Jersey came to my head, which is the first picture below. I then started traveling around the area via google maps in search for similar places, or where I could potentially take photographs like the one above. However there are many places in jersey such as alleyways and tight areas where I could take photographs referring to the other work of Atget, but this search was only for the analysed image.

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