mind map:
about Atget and why I studied him:
Eugene Atget was born in 1857 and was a French pioneer of documentary photography. He was well known for his images of architecture and the streets of Paris. Atget wasn’t always passionate about photography though, after becoming an orphan at the age of just seven, he was brought up by his grandparents in Bordeaux. After he had finished secondary school he joined the merchant navy and in1878 he moved to Paris in the hope of getting into an acting class but initially failed the entry exam, on the second attempt he was accepted but later got expelled as he rarely attended due to being in the navy. He then became an actor from being in a travelling group in Paris where he met his partner Valentine Delafosse, and they were together until her death. In 1887 he gave up acting due to an infection in his vocal cords, and took up painting in the providences. At the age of thirty he took his first image which dates back to 1888. Shortly after in 1890 he moved back to Paris where he became a professional photography, using a large format view camera to take images for architects, studies for painters and artists, and stage designers. From 1898 many institutions began to buy his work and commissioned him to systematically photograph building all over Paris, but he then moved to Montparnasse. In 1920-1921 he sold thousands of his images to different institutes and then took up photographing the parks of Versailles, Saint-Cloud and Sceaux, producing a series from it. Bernice Abbott, another photographer, tried to promote Atget’s work through articles, books, exhibitions and also sold her collection of his work to the Museum of Modern Art. In 1926 Valentine, Atget’s partner passed away. Shortly after Eugene Atget also passed away in Paris in 1927. Eugene’s work made a tremendous and sudden impact on the world of photography and ended up influencing maybe future photographers.
I have chosen to study Atget because I think his images show the detail of old/historical buildings which I would like to show in part of my personal study. Because of modern technology I may not be able to take my images in the way that he has as we have a lot more developed cameras etc, therefore I may try to edit my images to recreate that same effect. I like how all of Atget’s images have the same style and work together very well as I think it makes his work stand out to the viewers. As most of his images are produced in Paris I think that some of the streets are very similar to the ones here in Jersey meaning that I can re create his images to a high standard. Lots of Atget’s work shows what appears to be run down buildings which I think I will be able to recreate as there are many over here. I also think that Atget was very good at focusing on the architecture, managing to include the detail of the building, the texture, and the area that the images were taken in. Overall I think that Eugene Atget is the artist that I am most inspired by as his work captured my eyes and focuses on what I want to base part of my personal study on.
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