CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 10/1/2016

Berenice Abbott: Paris Portraits 1925–1930

Now considered one of the most important photographers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Eugène Atget—photographed here in 1927—was rescued from obscurity by Berenice Abbott, who spent decades fighting to establish his reputation. "I asked Atget to come by and pose for me and he did," she said in 1979 to Hank O'Neal, co-editor and author of Berenice Abbott: Paris Portraits 1925-1930, the exquisite new monograph from Steidl. "I like the side view best; I think he knew I would and I didn't have to do anything with him. He just sat down this way and I took it. That was that. I didn't need to do anything. I had no idea he was so ill; I knew he was very old but I didn't expect him to die so soon. It turned out to be one of my popular portraits." Atget died only days after this photograph was made.