Prostitute, Paris
Cafe, Paris, 1924 6AM
Eugene Atget (1857-1927) was one of the most artistic photographers of Paris in the early years of the 1900's. He was also a skilled technician of the craft.
He was orphaned when he was seven years old and went to sea as a cabin boy on the Transatlantic. He gave up the sea after several voyages across the Atlantic and became an actor, where he performed in mostly second-rate shows in secondary roles.
He knew that he could make a living with a camera selling scenes to artists who needed a fixed image to study as they painted. He sold his work to the artists of Montparnasse.
He was a bohemian at heart and he moved to Montparnasse to live in the "art colony" there. He was a neighbor of Man Ray, and a contemporary of Matisse, and Picasso.