Solar Eclipse, April 1912, 1912

About the Work

In 1926 this photo by Eugène Atget decorated the cover of issue no. 7 of the periodical ‘La Révolution surréaliste’, the chief publication of the Surrealist movement in Paris. Obscuring brightness, as happens during a solar eclipse, was contrary to the Surrealist’s concern, namely enlightening the human psyche. Atget was considered a key figure of documentary photography. A year before his death, the Surrealists adopted the photo as their magazine’s trademark, thus making the photographer a prophet of their movement.