I’ve learned that France puts a very high value on those who engage in literary or artistic endeavors. This is something I love about this country. And as many of us know, some of the best artists and creatives in history come from France.

I love old photographs, especially of Paris, so this week I wanted to tell you about one of my absolute favorite French photographers – Eugène Atget.

Atget always seemed destined for the arts

Born in 1857, he was raised by his grandparents after being orphaned at five. In his 20s, he worked as a cabin boy on passenger ships destined for South America. He returned to France and became an actor in the theater until he had problems with his vocal cords. Then he tried his hand (literally!) at painting. Not finding much success, he pursued photography.

Towards the end of the 19th century, Atget’s work mostly served as images on which artists could base their paintings.

But things started rapidly changing in Paris.

Industrialization began to change the city, which was being torn down and rebuilt by Georges-Eugene Haussmann. Haussmann was tasked with cleaning up grimy old Paris. He did away with the narrow, rickety old streets and dilapidated buildings to create a more open, ‘breathable’ city.

Atget foresaw the disappearance of ‘vieux Paris’ (old Paris), so he decided to devote the next 30 years to documentary photography.

Thank goodness, because without his work, we wouldn’t have much to go on.

Eugène Atget took photos of streets, storefronts, private hotels, and people. He traveled far and wide, from central Paris to the entirely undeveloped outskirts.

La Zone: la péripherique

Those undeveloped areas were along the periphery of Paris, an area that was known as The Zone. (Today it’s known as ‘la péripherique’ and is fully developed and more affordable than central Paris.)

By the turn of the 20th century, the people living in la Zone were very poor, often in ramshackle, makeshift dwellings surrounded by trash. They were known as les zoniers. Their living conditions were unhygienic, to say the least. It only got worse with Haussman’s project, which drove up real estate prices in Paris. (An entire article could be devoted to les zoniers, but I’ll leave that for another time.)

Atget did well to document the lives of les zoniers. When I see their images in his photos (below), they remind me of the scenes described in John Steinbeck’s ‘Grapes of Wrath’.

Except this was Paris, not the United States during the Dust Bowl.

Documenting and preserving

Over the years, Eugène Atget took more than 15,000 photographs, meticulously documenting exact locations and dates on his photos. He even captured his own studio (below), but identified it under a different name to create some distance between the artist and his subject.

Eugene Atget and Berenice Abbott

A few years before Eugène Atget died in 1927, he became acquainted with an American photographer named Berenice Abbott. At the time, Abbott was working for Man Ray in his Paris studio. (Man Ray and Atget lived on the same street in the Montparnasse neighborhood of Paris.)

Atget and Abbot shared a love for documenting (and preserving) the magic of their modernizing cities – New York for her, Paris for him. Abbott took his portrait photos before he died. Sadly, she learned about his death when she returned to Paris to show them to him.

Seizing the opportunity to tell the world about Atget’s work, Abbott spread the word among her New York circles. She also acquired thousands of his photographs, which she gave to the Museum of Modern Art. (Separately, the National Library of France also has thousands of Atget’s photographs.)

If you’re coming to Paris and have an interest in Atget’s work, you MUST visit the Musée Carnavelet, which is entirely devoted to Paris’ history. One of the best depictions of ‘vieux Paris’ is through Atget’s photography.

Image credits: Sources

• Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson: Eugene Atget
• Museum of Modern Art: Eugene Atget
• Bibliotheque Nationale de France
• Chicago Tribune article about Atget and Abbott (from 1991)