I was looking for a hotel that was no longer there or that never existed. I found myself lost in dreams of the hotel room that still waited, at the top of the stairway, at the end of the passage. Imagining its interior, the window overlooking a courtyard. And shadows fell as I was looking.
I wake early just before dawn, and the first thing I do is to open the curtains. To be with the river again. It is deserted outside and still dark. The bridges with their arches and supports in solid lines against the sky, illuminated, guarding the night. It is cold so I open the curtains wide and climb back under the covers. I want to sit and watch the sun rise and describe the scene outside, to try and get closer to the bridges in words, in pencil lines. I am trying to tether myself to the concrete reality of these bridges, hoping to map their crossings.
Atget’s project to photograph a disappearing Paris, places him in the tradition of street photography and the flâneur, observing the city, preserving and capturing its details and subjects. His photographs capture a moment contained within the spaces of a Paris in flux. They capture the transitory, fleeting glimpses of courtyards, streets, shop windows, interiors and reflections.
The Street Walks In 