Atget in context

(Atget 1924)

One thing about Atget is that his continued use of the same equipment and materials at the end of his career as at the beginning - along with his choice of subject matter - can lead to many of his pictures appearing to be much "older" than they in fact are - or at least appearing to be from an earlier time. In fact, certain obvious exceptions aside, it's frequently hard to tell if an Atget photograph was taken in the 1890's or thirty five or so years later in the mid 1920's. I frequently find that I'm caught out by the date of certain photographs until I check them.

(Atget 1921)

The two Atget photographs above were taken well after the three photographs below by Lartigue. Two of them around 10 -12 years or so later, the other 16-19 years or so earlier.

(Lartigue 1913)

(Lartigue 1911)

(Lartigue 1905)

As well, this last picture by Atget (below) was taken in the same year that Hemingway published The Sun Also Rises:

(Atget 1926)

And finally, all of these photographs where taken several years after Picasso painted his groundbreaking and revolutionary masterpiece Les Demoiselles D'Avignon.