Getty Museum
Cité Trebert, Porte d'Asnieres
Creator
Eugène AtgetFrench Photographer · 1857–1927
All works by this person →Eugène Atget never called himself a photographer; instead he preferred "author-producer." A private, almost reclusive man, Atget first tried his hand at painting and acting, then began to photograph *vieux Paris* (Old Paris) in 1898. He photographed in part to create "documents," as he called his photographs, of architecture and urban views, but he supported himself by selling these photographs to
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- 1912
- Medium
- Albumen silver print
- Culture
- French
- Department
- Photographs
- Institution
- Getty Museum
Bundles of newspaper, sacks of rags, and scattered miscellaneous debris at the foot of this ramshackle flight of stairs indicate that this is the domain of a middleman in the junk trade. Over the interior doorway, a neatly lettered sign provides prices for various kinds of scrap, including glass, mixed paper, and iron. In a 1920 letter to the director of the École des Beaux-Arts, period staircases were among the many images that Eugène Atget listed in his collection of prints. Apparently, Atget felt that the subject was of historical interest and should therefore be documented. When creating images, Atget was primarily concerned with recording subjects--including architecture--that he felt were disappearing from Parisian life and culture. The decay illustrated here clearly showed that this carved wood staircase was not going to endure.
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