Versailles, Le Parc 1901 - 1902

Editor: Here we have Eugène Atget's "Versailles, Le Parc," taken between 1901 and 1902. It's a photograph of a statue within the park at Versailles, isn't it? The tones are lovely, almost velvety. What can you tell me about this print? Curator: Well, it's important to consider Atget’s project in the context of Parisian modernization. He systematically documented a city rapidly changing, a pre-industrial Paris, capturing shop fronts, architectural details, and these statues. His archive, made through photographic prints, became a means of cultural production and consumption in its own right. Editor: Cultural production? In what way? Curator: These weren't intended as 'art' in the traditional sense. They were records, source material for artists, architects, and historians. Consider the labour involved: Atget hauling his large-format camera, the cost of materials, the darkroom process. He was producing images that were then circulated, bought, sold, and used to create further art, or to reconstruct a glorified French past for propaganda's sake, but what about the workers who made the actual statue and building? Editor: So, you're focusing on the… physicality and distribution of these photographs? The 'stuff' that makes it art, or not-art, and the hands that make Versailles such an icon. Curator: Precisely. And consider how Atget's work challenges our ideas of 'high art' versus 'craft'. Is his labor less valid than a painter's, just because it's photographic? It speaks volumes about consumption, industrialisation, and class division. The materiality of the print becomes crucial in understanding its cultural value. Editor: I see, the photo isn’t just a picture of a statue; it’s a piece of material evidence in a wider system. That's really given me a new angle on how to view it, thank you! Curator: My pleasure, looking at materiality and social context can really open up fresh interpretations of art history.