Atget: postcards of a lost Paris

Abstract

The postcards in this book, which were more or less Atget?s only publications during his lifetime, were created near the beginning of his career, long before he was ?discovered? in the 1920s and raised to the status of the poetic chronicler of the fragility of time and place. This postcard series is atypical of his later work and its exact origins remain something of a mystery. Its images, which depict Paris? ?little trades?, were meant to capture the ephemeral color of life. In them, Atget presents the market stands, the odd jobs, the cobbled-together shops and the informal entertainment that gave Paris its piquancy and eternally renewing liveliness.