Rue De La Montagne Ste. Genevieve 

Eugène Atget made this photograph of the Rue De La Montagne Ste. Genevieve in Paris using a large-format camera and glass-plate negatives. The sepia tones and soft focus are due to the materials and processes of early photography. Atget was interested in documenting the changing urban landscape of Paris. The paving stones, buildings, and even the gas lamps are presented with a deep sense of materiality, revealing the city's infrastructure as a kind of built craft. Look at how the wet cobblestones glisten, reflecting the diffused light, and the patina of age on the buildings. These details speak to the labor of construction and maintenance, often unseen, that shapes our environment. Atget wasn't just recording architecture, but the very fabric of Parisian life, its rhythms, and the work that sustained it. By focusing on these everyday elements, Atget elevated them, suggesting that the true character of a place lies not just in its famous monuments, but in the texture of its streets and structures.