Looking at Atget

About this book

Renowned for his alluring and provocative photographs of the monuments interiors streets and people of Paris Eugne Atget (18571927) was fascinated with the myriad materials textures surfaces and details of his subjects. Although not well known in his own lifetime his influential work now appears in almost all the worlds major museums. This book replete with exquisite reproductions of more than one hundred of Atgets photographs features selections from the Philadelphia Museum of Arts highly prized collection including at least ten previously unpublished images and two albums in which the photographer stored his own work.Peter Barberie explores the earliest and most compelling accounts of Atgets photography and recounts the efforts undertaken by photographer Berenice Abbott and art dealer Julien Levyeach with a different perspective on Atgets workto bring his photographs to the United States and to promote his legacy. By analyzing how Atget assembled and organized his own albums Barberie also offers fresh insights into how the photographer may have viewed his own work.