[Richard Jepsen]

Without Abbott Atget would be unknown today. Atget has been the photographers photographer since Walker Evans promoted his work to those he mentored. It was the critical promotion by Szarkowski that brought the work to a wider audience.

What a long workman like effort to record a city in transition. He followed Charles Marville and others who were more careful workers. His obsession, production, quirky images plus his obscurity fuels the interest. He mostly approached photography on his terms which is part of his appeal.

I agree with the below quote and the posters comments. Atget's seems an enigma.

Eugene Atget ......is rather an example of a quiet genius producing a sublime body of work that could have very easily escaped the notice of the art-world.

The images I respond to are the unintended surreal accidents and the sense of transition.

I don't have a great city to photograph living in Oklahoma but I am mindful of Atget's techniques and let myself be influenced by his artless recording of place.