Homage to Atget

It was a cold and foggy morning and I decided to pop up to Wortley Hall in the hope of emulating some of the images of Eugene Atget (1857 - 1927) from century ago. He mainly photographed architectural subjects and the plates he used emphasised the mist and smoke in the scene.

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When I first encountered his work I remember being dismissive of the static shots with dark corners at the top, where he had elevated his cheap lens outside its field of view. However it did not take me long to realise that my style was very similar and I understand his work more as the years go by.

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Needless to say my efforts fell short of the great man. I had planned to convert all my images to black and white but they seemed to work better in the muted colours that were present.

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Although Atget was a professional photographer he would probably have not been remembered had it not been for Berenice Abbott, a young American photographer who met him, near the end of his life, and promoted his work.

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The real Atget

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This is Berenice Abbott's portrait of Atget taken in 1927, just before he died.

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See http://mastersofphotography.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/eugene-atget.html and link to other famous and influential photographers. Marvellous!