a detail in a corner of one of Atget’s street images,
‘‘The reel with no thread clamorously demands to
be interpreted.’’
During his lifetime Atget did not receive the
recognition he rightly deserved according to his
peers, critics, and photographers who followed in
his wake. He died virtually unknown and unpub-
lished in any major photographic publications; he
never showed his work in the many Parisian sa-
lons. There were several institutions, however, that
honored him by purchasing collections of works
during his lifetime. These included the Biblio-
theque historique de la Ville de Paris, the Bib- liotheque nationale, and the library of the Muse`e
des Arts de ́coratifs. Despite nominal success dur-
ing his own lifetime, the work of Atget has been
increasingly admired since his death. Calmettes
wrote to Abbott the following epitaph for Atget,
‘‘May all those who are interested in what he loved
so much...still pronounce sometimes his name,
which was that of a strong, courageous artist, of
an admirableimagier.’’
CATHERINEBurdickSeealso:Abbott, Berenice; Man Ray; Surrealism
Biography
Jean Eugene Auguste Atget was born at Libourne, near Bordeaux, France, February 12, 1857. Moved to Paris, 1860s, enrolled in Catholic high school. Enrolled in Con- servatory of the French National Theatre, 1879. Returned to Paris around 1889 and began photography around 1898. Self-educated in photography. Sold 100 prints to the Bibliotheque historique de la Ville de
Paris, 1899. BeganLa Topographie du Vieux Paris,
- Sold 2600 plate glass negatives to the Service
Photographique des Monuments Historiques around- Published inLa Re ́volution surre ́aliste, 1926 .Died
in Montparnasse, August 4, 1927.
Selected Works
La Topographie du Vieux Paris(series)
Street Musicians, 1899–1900 (printed in 1956 by Berenice
Abbott from Atget’s negative)
Cour, rue Beethovan, 9, 1901
Versailles, coin de parc, 1902
Versailles, parc, 1906
Ragpicker, Paris, 1899–1900
Eclipse, 1911 (printed in 1956 by Berenice Abbott from
Atget’s negative)
St. Cloud, 1919–1921
226 Boulevard de la Villette, 1921
Avenue des Gobelins, Paris, 1925
Men’s Fashions, 1925 (published titleMagasin, avenue des
Gobelins, printed 1956 by Abbott from Atget’s negative)
Buttes Chaumont, 1926
Fete de la Villette, 1926
Boulevard de Strasbourg, 1926Further Reading
Abbot, Berenice.The World of Atget. New York: Berkley
Publishing Corporation, 1964.
Atget, Euge`ne.Atget Paris. Paris: Hazan, 1992.
Atget, Euge`ne. Atget’s Gardens: A Selection of Euge`ne
Atget’s Garden Photographs. New York: Doubleday
and Company Inc., 1979.
Borcoman, James. Euge`ne Atget: 1857–1927. Ottawa:
National Museums of Canada, 1984.
Lemagny, Jean-Claude.Atget: the Pioneer. Munich, New
York, London: Prestel, 2000.
Szarkowski, John.Atget. New York: The Museum of Mod-
ern Art and Calloway, 2000.
Trottenberg, Arthur. D., ed.A Vision of Paris: The Photo-
graphs of Euge`ne Atget, Words of Marcel Proust. New
York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1963.ELLEN AUERBACH
American
Ellen Auerbach founded a pioneering woman-run
photography studio in Berlin in the late 1920s and
early 1930s, where she created memorable portraiture
and advertising photographs. This studio, consisting
of Auerbach and her close friend Grete Stern, came to
a sudden end with Hitler’s rise to power. Throughout
her flight from Berlin to Tel Aviv and then to London
Auerbach still managed to work as a photographer.
In 1937 she immigrated to the United States where
she worked as a freelance photographer and then, late
in life, as an educator working with children suffering
from schizophrenia.ATGET, EUGE`NE