Eugène Atget
JOUEUR D'ORGUE À PARIS, 1898
About this photographThis photograph of an organ player in a Paris street is from the Picturesque Paris series created by Atget at the very end of the 1890?s. The symbol of a disappearing profession in a street of the capital, roving musicians greatly contributed to the diffusion of ideas or news in the same way as newspapers. In fact, beyond several common varieties of popular music, their repertoire was often inspired by important events or outstanding news items, providing advertising for these events.
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Not long before his death, between 1925 and 1927, Atget dedicated a last series of photographs to the big windows of the new Parisian shops, a symbol of the commercial modernism between the wars. These storefront photographs, where reflections from the shimmering of the glass appear, held the attention of the surrealist artists in particular who saw in it the expression of sensory confusion.
