What is Eugene Ajie's shooting career like?

/kloc-At the end of 0/9, salon photography with London, Paris and new york as the center and the pursuit of "painting" was all the rage. But in Paris, France, there is a photographer living in his own world. He ran around the street with his camera on his back, recording the face of the city. He is the French photographer Ajie, who is known as "the pioneer of modern documentary photography".

Eugene Atget (1857 ~1927) was born in Ribbon, France. His parents died when he was a child, and he became an orphan and was raised by his grandparents. He was a sailor and later became an actor in 15.

1898, Ajie, 4 1 year-old, began to use 18×24 inch assembled camera to systematically photograph Paris and its suburbs with glass plates. 1920165438+1October 12 in a letter to Paul Leon, artistic director of the Paris Historical Materials Management Office, Ajie summed up his photography career like this:

In the past 20 years, due to my work and initiative, I have collected all the architectural art materials of old Paris from 16 to 19 century, in the form of 18cm×24cm(7 inches× 9.5 inches) photographic frames: old hotels, historical houses, beautiful building facades, and. There are also interiors (panorama and details) of all churches in Paris, including Notre Dame de Paris, Saint Gervais, Saint Seffrin, Saint Julian, Saint Etienne, Saint Nicholas Church in Charlton and so on.

This huge collection of art records has now been completed, and I can really say that I own the whole old Paris.

In his later letter to Paul Leon, Ajie also said that his photos were divided into two parts: "Art of Old Paris" and "Unique Paris", and explained that many buildings and contents in "Unique Paris" no longer existed. He also said that he was filming two new topics: arts and crafts in old Paris and around Paris; arts in Seine, Seine-Vaz and Seine-Marne provinces.

Ajie is convinced that photos have the value of recording history, so he hopes to record the disappearing image of Paris in the19th century through photography. He photographed mannequins and female corsets displayed in the window, metal signs in the open-air market, fountains and elegant classical sculptures in the park ... and the life from aristocratic mansions to the lower classes. These fragments of urban scenes make people discover the incredible vivid charm of the streets and lanes in Paris.

1899 10 10/6, Ajie sold 100 photos entitled "Old Paris" to the Paris Historical Library. This is the first public record of his participation in photo sales as a photographer. After that, until the outbreak of World War I in 19 14, Ajie sold more than 5,500 photos to this photo library in dozens of times. At the same time, he also sold his photos to many government agencies, museums, art galleries and schools, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. With the income from selling photos, Ajie struggled to maintain his shooting work. 1On August 4th, 927, Ajie ended his life of poverty, leaving behind nearly 10,000 precious photos of old Paris.

After Ajie's death, his first photo collection "Ajie-Photographer" in Paris was published in 1930. These photos are highly praised and considered as "precious records of French culture". 65438-0969, new york Museum of Modern Art held a retrospective exhibition of Ajie's works. This exhibition established Ajie's position in the history of modern photography.