Staircase, Montmartre 

Eugène Atget's "Staircase, Montmartre" is a stark and striking photograph capturing a Parisian street scene. Atget, a photographer who documented the vanishing architecture and everyday life of Paris, focused on the details of the city, often capturing them with an impersonal objectivity. The image highlights a humble staircase, its worn stone steps leading to a street lined with weathered buildings. The bare branches of a tree reaching towards the sky add a sense of melancholy, underscoring the fleeting nature of the Parisian landscape in the early 20th century.