Born on February 12 in the port city of Libourne, Jean-Eugene-Auguste Atget was the only child of Jean-Eugene and Clara. His father was a carriage maker, who soon became a traveling salesman. Atget lost his father at the age of five when he died in June of 1862. Clara only survived her husband briefly and Atget was orphaned. Some sources indicate Atget was raised by his maternal grandparents. In this account, his upbringing was modest, and it can only be assumed he was educated in free public schools. With school finished, Atget signed on to a merchant vessel as a cabin boy. His ports are not well known, however Africa and Uruguay have been named several times. Atget abandoned this lifestyle and returned to Paris around 1878-1879.
Upon his arrival in Paris, Atget applied to the National Conservatory of Music and Drama. He was turned down the first time and then drafted by the army. After serving a year in the Sixty-third Infantry Division, Atget reapplied to the school and was finally admitted. Atget now had to juggle the full-time commitment to the army and his new found love of drama. Edmond Got, Atget’s professor, was a popular actor at the Comedie Francaise and also considered to be one of the best…show more content… Atget's change in focus coincided with a campaign launched by antiquarians to protect and document prerevolutionary architecture threatened by the city's massive modernization program, which included, among other projects, the construction of the Paris Métro. Enamored of the city's history, Atget, working alone, built up a vast photographic archive of Paris' old houses, shops, churches, and streets, as well as its architectural ornamentation, including doors, stairways, door knockers, and mantelpieces. While he continued to sell prints to artists, Atget now found a larger market among publishers, amateur scholars of Old Paris, libraries, and
