Eugene Atget

First edition, first printing of Atget’s iconic photobook Photographe de Paris.

• Eugene Atget (French).
• New York: E. Weyhe, 1930.
• Includes a frontispiece portrait of Atget by Berenice Abbott and 96 stunning full-page collotypes from the original Atget negatives.
• Captions booklet printed in a six-page gathering fold under plain leaf at the rear pastedown.
• Bound in the original burgundy-colored cloth boards issued without a dust jacket.

The book was also published simultaneously by Verlag Henri Jonquières, Paris and Leipzig in 1930 with the German edition, “Lichtbilder” released in a limited edition of 1,000. Berenice Abbott purchased the contents of Atget’s studio in Paris — 1,300 glass negatives and 7,000 prints assembled in albums — following his death in 1927. She brought the collection to New York with the backing of Julian Levy. Together, they introduced Atget’s work to the American public in a series of exhibitions and publications. Pierre Mac-Orlan contributed an essay to the book and his essay concludes, “For many among us, Atget’s Paris is now no more than a memory whose delicacy is already mysterious. It is worth all the books written on the subject, and without doubt will inspire others.” In The Book of 101 Books: Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century, Andrew Roth states, “Over time, Atget’s photographs have come to be seen by many as the beginning of modern photography."