I’ve been an admirer of Eugene Atget ever since I first saw his photographs. The distinctive look comes partly from the fact that he was using equipment, which was already obsolete. He took photographs to sell to painters who would use them as the basis for their paintings. He was also very much aware that the old Paris was starting to disappear and he wanted to capture something of what would be lost. He wandered around Paris a lot, often taking pictures early in the morning. The already old cameras that he was using required him to make long exposures. These two factors (early morning and long exposure) mean that many of his street scenes are devoid of people. Not that he didn’t take pictures of people – he certainly did, but in many of his pictures Paris almost seems deserted.
Eric Kim has an interesting article on Atget.
His pictures appear deceptively simple, but I’ve had great difficult coming up with something like them – probably because his talent was much greater than mine. Here are a couple that come closest. Taken at the Chuang Yen Monastery in Carmel, NY.