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Eugene Atget Appreciation

Sirius Glass said:
Add to that his art training in composition so that one can understand his refusal to allow anyone to crop his photographs.
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It's there. Answer (c). André Lhote was Cartier-Bresson painting teacher. He credited Lhote for teaching him everything he knew about composition.
 
 
 
Alex Benjamin said:
It's there. Answer (c). André Lhote was Cartier-Bresson painting teacher. He credited Lhote for teaching him everything he knew about composition.
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And now others can see the deeper meaning of your answer (c).
 
snusmumriken said:
Yes, me too. Interesting that Atget took that one, if his motivation was purely to document. Arguably it's invidious to compare, but for my taste, HCB made a much better job of the subject.
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I agree with you — their approaches are quite different. Atget's composition feels almost like a two-dimensional representation, with the boat perfectly parallel and the trees framing it like a fairytale scene or a carefully staged, timeless set. Bresson, on the other hand, plays with volume, texture, tight framing, and depth of field to create a sense of tension. As a result, I believe they evoke very different emotions. I’d even venture to say (forgive me, @koracs) that the first image speaks to the stillness of time, while the second hints at its passage. Just a few thoughts that came to me.
 
koraks said:
For what? I'm OK with people misspelling my name; I'm kind of used to it. Both online and IRL. It doesn't really bother me.
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Hahaha sorry for that!
Is it of Russian origin btw? Funny but in Greek it means "raven"
 
snusmumriken said:
Yes, me too. Interesting that Atget took that one, if his motivation was purely to document. Arguably it's invidious to compare, but for my taste, HCB made a much better job of the subject.
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Not the same subject.
 
So here's a question: NYT art critic James Farago says that modernism requires that "good art is good because it is innovative." How was Atget innovative? I think it was a new level of emotion brought to a "document."
 
nikos79 said:
isn't that a lone boat resting in nature?
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One is a functional boat ready to go, the other is a derelict boat that will never go anywhere. Yes, they are both "boats" but that's not the subject.
 
Arthurwg said:
So here's a question: NYT art critic James Farago says that modernism requires that "good art is good because it is innovative." How was Atget innovative? I think it was a new level of emotion brought to a "document."
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First of all, nothing in art is ever truly new — it’s a constant process of reinvention, and 'modern' can be anything that moves you. I’m Greek, but most so-called 'modern' Greek literature is rubbish. Should I throw away Euripides just because his work was written over 2,000 years ago? That aside, Atget was innovative in many ways, largely because he rejected the prevailing Pictorialism of his time. His approach to photographing the ordinary with a poetic sensibility, elevating everyday scenes as if they were monuments, paved the way for photographers like Walker Evans and many others.
 
Arthurwg said:
One is a functional boat ready to go, the other is a derelict boat that will never go anywhere. Yes, they are both "boats" but that's not the subject.
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I see what you mean. I thought of that too
 
"Gotta have a Guru", as the old 60's tune went. Malarky!
 
Arthurwg said:
One is a functional boat ready to go, the other is a derelict boat that will never go anywhere. Yes, they are both "boats" but that's not the subject.
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That much is obvious; and one is French, the other Irish. But what do you say the subjects of these two pictures are, then? I don’t see that innovation can be a subject.
 
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