Eugene Atget’s Late Years

At the end of the 19th century, salon photography in pursuit of "picturesque" became popular in London, Paris, and New York. But Ajit always lives in his own world. He used an 18×24-inch large-format camera to record the face of the city, taking about 8,000 photos in 39 years. However, Ajie's efforts failed to attract attention. He was unknown. He never published a photo album or held a photo exhibition during his lifetime. In addition, he was plagued by illness. In his later years, Atjit could be described as suffering from poverty and illness.

Eugène Atget lives in a small studio on the 5th floor of 17 rue 1, Paris, just outside the Avenue de Montparnasse. He lived on milk, bread and a little sugar. In his later years, Ajit lived a very lonely life. Fortunately, before Atget's death, the value of his photos was discovered by Berenice Abbott. At that time, Abbott from the United States was in Paris, where she served as the assistant of photographer Man Ray. Man Ray's studio was on the same street as Atget's residence, and she saw Atget's photos in the studio. With his keen artistic intuition, Abbott realized that although the objects photographed by Atget were all common, they had a unique "visual purity" and were a valuable cultural treasure. Later, when talking about Atget's photos, she wrote: The impact they had on me was rapid and huge, making me realize at once that this was realism without pretense. Soon after, Abbott visited Atjit. She met Ajie, who was a little tired and sad, in a room with the words "Provide Materials for Artists" written on the door on the sixth floor of the apartment. She browsed Ajie's photos, listened to his talk about the joys and hardships of shooting, and invited Ajie to the photo studio she later opened to take a frontal and a profile photo of him. Unfortunately, when she came to the apartment with the photos a few days later, Ajit had already passed away.