Eugene Atget Photographer - ACE118.3

Atget creeping outdoors in the early morning. Outside the Panthéon, by the statue of Pierre Corneille. Narrator talks of his ambition to create a record of "artistic and picturesque" images of Paris. Photographs including Beauvais - petit porche, rue de l'Abbé Gellé (1904); Ancien fountain du passage 6 rue des Guillemites (1911); 5 rue Bonaparte; Fountaine de la Tête de Boeuf - Marché des Blancs Manteaux (1900); Art in Old Paris 4083: Fontaine Hospitalière Saint-Gervais, rue Vieille du Temple (1900). The "city is deserted, yet redolent of people…". Atget’s images of the city are "of its past and its present which comes from the streets and returns to the streets…" Pictures include Bar de Cabaret (1919-1911). Cour, 7 rue de Valence (1922). Atget walking along cobbled street; Abbott’s VO saying that when he was documenting Paris, "much of the art world either ignored photography or regarded it as beneath contempt". Au Griffon - 39 quai de l'Horloge (1902-1903). Au Port Salut - Cabaret Rue des Fosses St. Jacques (1903). Ambassade d’Autriche, rue de Varenne (1905). Atget painting a tree; Abbott’s VO suggests he had a passion for them. Atget visits a painter: Abbott explains that he found customers to use his photographs as references: Marchand d’abat-jours, rue Lepic (1899-1900), Joueur d'orgue, Faucheurs, Somme (before 1900), Paveur (1899-1900). The artist turns him down, Atget leaves. Artist’s male model. Narrator quotes from an art magazine in which a model talks about posing for Atget, "the supreme artist". Madame Atget rehearsing her part from Racine’s Britannicus as Atget comes home; he pretends that the artist has bought some work. Atget visits a collector who pays him for 200 photographs of architectural details. Narrator says that fashionable builders liked to recreate old styles. Atget photographing a fountain. Abbott’s VO saying that the process of making a photograph is preceded by a decision on the part of the photographer. Atget at home; Narrator says he left no records of his personal life which is known only from what Calmettes wrote. Atget arguing with a designer says "the cinema is not the theatre and photography is not painting".