[Atget's Work Room with Contact Printing Frames]

Eugène Atget

ca. 1910 · Albumen silver print from glass negative · Photographs

This straightforward study by Atget of his own work room offers a rare glimpse of the inner sanctum of an auteur éditeur, as he described his profession. On the table are the wooden frames the photographer used to contact print his glass negatives; at right are several bins of negatives stacked vertically; below the table are his chemical trays; on the shelves above are stacks of paper albums—a shelf label reads escaliers et grilles (staircases and grills). Atget used these homemade albums to organize his vast picture collection from which he sold views of old Paris to clients.

Artist

Eugène Atget

Date

ca. 1910

Medium

Albumen silver print from glass negative

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 1990