The exhibition of Eugene Atget - my opinion

[Matt. K]

The exhibition of Eugene Atgets work at the NSW Art Gallery was a tour de force in the sheer number of prints that hung in the many rooms. I think over 200 prints! When seeing the totality of his work it became easier to make some personal judgements on his artistry and the legacy he left the world. My first impression was that Atget was not attempting to be artistic or creative, but simply was photographing the city of Paris as one would photographically record beetles or butterflies for a museum catalogue. He imposed no artistic style or wizardry apart from isolating his subject as much as possible from distracting surrounds. His ‘style’ came not so much from his techniques, but the materials and equipment he used which left its own imprint on his work. His 18 x 24 plate camera required long exposures which made photographing people very difficult so most of his images are of empty streets. Many of the images in the exhibition were of dubious technical quality…either under or over exposed and some images showed heavy vignetting. All of these things added to the charm of the imagery in some way, but also demonstrated that Atgets priority was not image quality but image content. The prints were contacts made from the glass plates and none of the works were enlarged….and herein, in my opinion, was an opportunity lost. I would have loved to have seen the images printed HUGE, so that all of the fine detail would be revealed. The gallery walls would then have become old Paris and the viewer could stand in the middle of the space and become immersed in the world that Atget captured. A sound track could have played some Parisian piano accordion, horses hooves on cobbles and perhaps just a little of that famous voice….the little sparrow, Edith Piaf.
Barring all of the above, I would have like to have seen the exhibition culled down to about 60 of his finest works. The rest were just wallpaper. Now...who's working on old Sydney?

[ATJ]

Now...who's working on old Sydney?

Sorry, I'm busy with the beetles and butterflies (and fish) for the museum collection.