Marchand abat-jours 1899 - 1900

Eugène Atget captured Marchand abat-jours with a gelatin silver printing-out paper in Paris. Atget, working in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, documented a rapidly changing Paris, a city on the brink of modernity. This image captures a street vendor, a member of the working class, selling lampshades. His presence evokes questions about labor, class, and the everyday lives of ordinary Parisians. It also presents a gendered history. The lampshades themselves speak to domesticity and the roles women played within the household. As well as illuminating a room, lamps cast light on the gendered division of labor. Atget’s work invites us to consider the complex interplay between individuals and their environment. "I only photograph what is no longer there," Atget once said. The photograph is a reminder of what has been lost but also an acknowledgment of those whose stories are often overlooked in grand narratives of progress and change.