Versailles, Coin de Parc 1904

This photograph, Versailles, Coin de Parc, was captured by Eugène Atget. It is an image of a corner of the park at Versailles. The sepia tones feel soft, like a memory. There's this statue, stoic, draped in fabric, standing next to a gnarled tree. The bark is so textured, you can almost feel it, like the skin of an old, wise person. Just to the side, there is this little chair, like someone was just there, contemplating. Atget was interested in documenting old Paris, but he wasn't just making postcards. He was showing us a world on the verge of disappearing. It reminds me of Bernd and Hilla Becher, how they catalogued industrial structures. There is this poetry in repetition and documentation, a way of seeing that isn't about perfection, but about presence and the passage of time. Art is this ongoing conversation, a constant exchange of ideas across time.