Versailles, Le Parc 1906 - 1907

This photograph of a garden in Versailles was taken by Eugène Atget. It’s a sepia toned world of stone, of terraces and trees, under an overcast Parisian sky. I wonder what it was like for Atget to stand here with his camera, lugging that thing around, waiting for the light? I imagine him looking up at these baroque fountains, feeling their age and the way they dominate the garden. The guy was a total original, completely self-taught. Maybe he felt a kinship with the stonemasons, carving out their own original space in the world. The terraces have a touch of Piranesi about them – the weight of history and the echo of voices. This feels like a document, but also something way more dreamy. You can almost hear the water trickling. Photography has this uncanny ability to be both real and unreal at the same time, and Atget seems to know this, letting the camera see what we can't.