See 19th Century Paris Through The Eyes Of Eugène Atget

Long before Paris was the tourist mecca it is today, it was a desolate place with foggy night scenes and fewer people.

Who captured it with their camera? Eugène Atget. He was a 20th century photographer who caught Paris in its quietest moments. The artist’s treasured photos are on view at the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation in an exhibition called “See Paris,” which runs until September 19. It reveals his “poet’s eye.”

On view are roughly 150 photos of “old Paris,” from street scenes to portraits of Parisians taken by Atget, who lived from 1857 to 1927. As a pioneer in documentary photography, the works on view are from the collections of the Musée Carnavalet - Histoire de Paris, which has the largest collection of the artist’s work in the world, over 9,000 images he created over 30 years as a photographer. This exhibit details the artist’s pioneering work (especially as a street photographer), as he influenced photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Co-curated by Anne de Mondenard, a photo curator at the Carnavalet Museum - History of Paris, and Agnès Sire, the artistic director at Fondation HCB, this exhibit traces how Atget started shooting in 1888. He was a self-taught photographer, starting with still life and landscape photos, then turned to shoot Parisian street scenes in 1897, capturing its winding streets, foggy night scenes, architecture and urban life.

He loved shooting parks around Paris, the fog that enveloped the city at night and melancholic reflections of nature in the Seine river. Historians say that Atget apparently told Man Ray in 1926 that he was only creating “simple documents” with his photographs.

According to Sire, Atget and Marcel Proust were contemporaries, both dedicating themselves to describing Paris in different ways. “But in both of their portraits, we see a totally different city,” she said. “Atget focused on humble Paris, on the small streets and on the dignity of the people of the suburbs.”

The artist shot Paris during dusk and dawn, and as the years went on, the more interest he was in capturing light. “Atget was most interested in the city, from the most classic architecture to the most remote courtyards, a Paris marked by history,” says the co-curators.

“The characters who invite themselves into the frame blend into the background. It is a celebration of Paris before it became one of the most photographed cities in the world.”