Dammarie-les-Lys, ruines 1910

This moody photograph of ruins was taken by Eugène Atget, sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. I'm imagining Atget setting up his camera, carefully framing the shot of these crumbling arches. It's amazing how the light and shadow play across the stone, giving it such a tactile, almost painterly quality. You can almost feel the weight of history in those columns. What was Atget thinking as he captured this scene? Maybe he was drawn to the romance of decay, the way nature reclaims what humans leave behind. Or maybe he was simply documenting a changing world, preserving a record of what once was. Whatever his motivations, he's left us with an image that's both beautiful and haunting. It reminds me a bit of Piranesi’s etchings – that fascination with the grandeur and ephemerality of architecture. It makes you wonder about the conversations artists have across time.