Atget, Eugene: The Work of Atget Four Volume Set (Complete)

First Edition

John Szarkowski and Maria Morris Hambourg

MoMA

In 1968, The Museum of Modern Art acquired some 5,000 prints and plates which Berenice Abbott had purchased from Eugene Atget's estate in 1928. For the next 12 years, the Dept of Photography carried on the work first of organizing the collection, then of attempting the reconstruction of both Atget's own complex record system and the chronology of his production. For the first time it became possible to date with reasonable accuracy almost all of Atget's work and to speculate as to the function that individual pictures were meant to serve. The four volumes in this series correspond to the author's sense of the principal issues, defined in terms of subject matter, that are presented in Atget's work. The illustrations were printed with three offset impressions, to insure the utmost fidelity to the original photographs.

4 Volumes, complete, with text by John Szarkowski & Maria Morris Hambourg. Essays, biography, bibliography, detailed notes on each photograph.

Vol. 1, OLD FRANCE, 1981. This first volume deals with the French countryside, the disappearing vestiges of "La Vieille France." 180 pages, 121 plates, 83 text ills.

Vol. 2, THE ART OF OLD PARIS, 1982. This volume concentrates on the sites and monuments as well as the little-known corners and oft-overlooked artifacts of the Paris untouched by Haussmann's renovations. 192 pages, 117 plates, 95 text ills.

Vol. 3, THE ANCIEN REGIME, 1983. Atget's photos of the monuments of the Ancien Regime with images made at the chateaux and parks of the French kings and noble families; principally, Versailles, Saint-Cloud, and Sceaux's formal gardens. 188 pages with one gatefold, 120 plates, 47 text ills.

Vol. 4, MODERN TIMES, 1985. The theme of this last volume is contemporary Paris--street scenes, shops, artisans at their trades, domestic interiors, carnivals, and cafes. 186 pages, 117 plates, 88 text ills.