Woke up this morning and read something about Atget that seemed on the mark.
Atget met Man Ray in the early 1920s. Man Ray's studio on the rue Campagne-Premiere was near Atgets's home, and Man Ray introduced him first to the American artist Berenice Abbott and then to all the Surrealists. This group was the first to discover the double language of Atget's photographs, made with the soul intent of documenting reality, and to appreciate the poetic and oddly disquieting atmosphere captured in each image.
The poetic and oddly disquieting atmosphere part was what struck me, it seemed to so accurately describe Atgets work.