Our weekly featurette This Week on Streethunters.net has returned once more to bring you your synopsis of the recent goings-on and happenings across the website and all our social media channels. If you’ve been out of the street photography news loop for a while and need a catch-up, you can browse through earlier weekly summaries on our This Week category page.
I’ve wrote about a few great photographers who have not received the acclaim and notoriety they richly deserved until late in their lives or after they’ve passed. John Gutmann and Vivian Maier are two examples. Our compassionate nature is quick to view this as a shame. A crime. But, the reality is… it necessarily isn’t. Sure, you can say they were denied or cheated of the riches and the fame that comes with critical and public acclaim. But, on the same note, you must also say they were free of the burdens and trappings of fame. Being popular, being famous, is not for everyone. It is not necessary to them. What’s necessary is satisfying their incredible urge to practice their craft. To be the artist they absolutely need to be. To answer their own calling. Eugene Atget was such an artist. Atget (1857-1927) left this world with little biographical information, but he did leave us with his stunning images of Old Paris. Atget did not practice photography until the 1890’s. Prior to that he was an actor and in the military, and it’s not really known why he got into photography. It is known he was also an amateur painter. Somewhere around 1890-91 he opened his own studio as a commercial photographer, selling prints to painters, sculptors, engravers and the like. He did landscapes, flowers, monuments and animals. In 1898, Atget changed his focus.
