A young Ansel Adams wrote this about Eugene Atget.
" The charm of Atget lies not in the mastery of plates and papers of his time, nor in the quaintness of costume architecture and humanity as revealed in his pictures, but in his equitable and intimate point of view. It is a point of view which we are pleased to call 'modern' and which is essentially timeless. His work is a simple revelation of the simplest aspects of his environment. There is no superimposed symbolic motive, no tortured application of design, no intellectual ax to grind. The Atget prints are direct and emotionally clean record of a rare and subtle perception, and represent perhaps the earliest expression of true photographic art."
" The charm of Atget lies not in the mastery of plates and papers of his time, nor in the quaintness of costume architecture and humanity as revealed in his pictures, but in his equitable and intimate point of view. It is a point of view which we are pleased to call 'modern' and which is essentially timeless. His work is a simple revelation of the simplest aspects of his environment. There is no superimposed symbolic motive, no tortured application of design, no intellectual ax to grind. The Atget prints are direct and emotionally clean record of a rare and subtle perception, and represent perhaps the earliest expression of true photographic art."
