Rue des Pierres, Meudon, House of Molière's Wife (Rue des Pierres, Meudon, Maison de Femme de Molière)

Eugène Atget is best known for his extensive photographs of Paris, which he began in 1897. Unlike his contemporary Alfred Stieglitz, Atget believed that photographs were documents, not art. His business offered “documents for artists,” intended as aids or references for artists’ paintings and drawings. For thirty years, Atget systematically documented old streets, alleyways, churches, courtyards, shops, parks, statues, and quays around Paris. His images reveal a preference for the older parts of the city, which had not been touched by the ongoing major renovation projects of France’s Prefect, Baron Haussmann. Atget’s thousands of images can be viewed as an early instance of street photography. The absence of people in the majority of his photographs not only emphasizes his interest in the architecture, but also creates an ethereal, nostalgic quality that befits these photographs that feature the last vestiges of the old in a rapidly changing city.