Rauschenberg was born in New York in 1951. In 1997 and 1998, he took three trips to Paris and rephotographed 500 of the images made of that city by Eugene Atget between 1890 and 1927 to create the Rephotographing Atget project. Rauschenberg started this project in 1989 when on a trip to Paris, came across a spiral-topped gateway, which he knew was the same gatepost as in one of Atget’s images, leading to a curiosity if any more places may be holding their poses.

Image Analysis

These side-by-side photos, taken by Atget in 1905 and Rauschenberg in 1998 clearly demonstrates Anthropocene because of the large amount of differences between the two time periods.

The biggest difference between the two photos is the lack of greenery in Rauschenberg that previously existed in 1905. In the center of 1905, a large tree is found with another not far behind it. However, in 1989, there is a wall and bench seen where the tree used to stand, with what seems like a gravel path in front surrounding the statue. However to the left of these photos, you can see that the greenery, perhaps a row of trees, remain untouched.

From an Anthropocene perspective, other than the statue, i feel like the benefit of this similarity is that it shows that the human mark is there but not quite taking over the whole of all landscapes.