Eugene Atget: Photographer

Meet France’s mysterious master of photography, neglected in his own lifetime but since feted for helping position the medium as an art form, and as an inspiration to surrealists. This meditative Arts Council documentary introduces Eugène Atget, a former actor who began to document the streets of old Paris from the 1890s. Little is known about his early life and the three decades he spent capturing, in eerie tableaux, urban spaces since lost to progress. The film includes dramatised scenes from his life, including his belated ‘discovery’ by American photographers Man Ray and Berenice Abbott, who published many of Atget’s works after his death in 1927.

Country:

United Kingdom

Genre:

Documentary

Duration:

48 minutes

Year:

1982

Director:

Peter Wyeth

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Company:

Arts Council of England

Cast:
Philippe Lehembre

Eugene Atget

Peggy Frankston

Berenice Abbott

Catherine Ohotnikoff

Madame Atget

Crew:
Peter Wyeth

Director

Peter Wyeth

Producer

Peter Wyeth

Writer

Patrick Duval

Cinematography

Benedict Mason

Music