Week 3

The Mary Street project is taking shape. I’ve been taking hundreds of photos...early in the morning as the darkness turns into daylight and then at the end of the day as the sun is low in the sky. Following my earlier ideas I’ve been taking streetscapes, walls and detail. So far I have been taking all my photos with a hand held camera...this presents some problems in low light of course and even thought I have some shots that are OK I think I’ll use a tripod on my next excursion with low light.
I’m really enjoying thinking about the photographers who have gained a reputation for their photos of cities and my interest in Atget and Cazneaux is helping to shape my approach to taking photos in Mary Street.

Eugene Atget (1857-1927)

His life
Eugene Atget was born in Lisbourne in France in 1857 close to 100 years before I was born and he died in Paris in 1927, the year before my father was born. He was orphaned young and after finishing school he was employed as a sailor and cabin boy, then later an actor, an artist and eventually a photographer.

Bernice Abbott. Portrait of Eugene Atget c.1927 (Gelatin silver print)

Perceptions of his work
He is described by Golden (2001) as documentary photographer and during his life his ‘deceptively simple...documentary pictures...were considered little more than functional illustrations’.

However, well known photographers such as Man Ray and Breton, and artists such as Picasso and Matisse saw ‘something new in these robust and direct photographs’. After his death another photographer, Berernice Abbott, devoted 40 years promoting his work.

The photographer
Atget shot on 18 x 24 cm glass plates using a bellows camera with a simple lens and because of the limitations of this technology he preferred to ‘photograph in the early morning when there were few passers-by’. This gave ‘a certain empty and surreal charm to his cityscapes’.

He took more than 10,000 photos of Paris and to earn a living he sold his photographs to museums, architects, decorators, and publishers, as well as artists.
‘Atget created many series...’ including
· Streets and shops
· Street traders
· Vehicles

I was attracted to taking a closer look at these photos in particular to try and understand what had made him such a successful photographer and artist and what could I learn that would help me to create a portfolio of photos that would provide a rich picture of Mary Street.

Taking a lead from Atget I would adopt both a documentary and an artistic approach to photographing Mary Street:
· emphasising the everyday
· with and without pedestrians
· highlighting the shops at the Nicholson St end
· focusing on vehicles and workers
· depicting cityscape and streetscape
· paying attention to the line that takes the viewer’s eye from the foreground into the distance
· paying attention to the structure of the image, light and dark, contrast and shape.