Maison à Versailles 1921

This photograph, Maison à Versailles, was captured by Eugène Atget at the turn of the last century. It shows a building facade with a subdued palette of browns, grays, and creams. I wonder what Atget was thinking as he framed this shot. Was he intrigued by the interplay of light and shadow across the textured surfaces? Or the figures in the window and doorway? I'm drawn to the number 5 painted above the balcony. It appears several times on the building, a motif that adds a layer of intrigue and repetition. There’s something about the flatness of the facade that reminds me of Giorgio Morandi’s still life paintings. The grid-like composition of the windows echoes his arrangements of bottles and vases. Artists are always responding to each other across time. Atget’s photograph invites us to reflect on how we see and interpret the world around us, capturing fleeting moments in time.