Solar Eclipse, April 1912 1912

Eugène Atget took this photograph, 'Solar Eclipse, April 1912' in, well, April of 1912. Isn’t it wonderful? To make a photograph you need light, and here, Atget embraces darkness. A church interior almost swallowed up by shadow. You can just about make out some sculptures, angels sitting on a monument. I imagine Atget, hiding under his dark cloth, willing the light to bend to his will. I wonder if he planned to take the photo at the precise moment of the eclipse or whether the title came later. Perhaps he was in dialogue with other artists; Turner, for instance, who was so committed to capturing light and dark in equal measure. Whatever his intention, the result is striking. Atget shows us that even in the dimmest light, there is beauty to be found.