These photographs of Paris were taken by Eugène Atget and later assembled into an album by Man Ray. Since 1976, the album has been in the collection of the George Eastman House, in Rochester, New York. The images, though varied, can be grouped into several themes—ragpickers, prostitutes, shop windows, and carnivals. Yet as a group they are enigmatic in their apparent inconsistency and in their attention to marginalized subjects. An innovative installation developed by the exhibition curator, Susan Laxton, informs the exhibition title. Original images mingle with repeated reproductions to offer a playful, thematic exploration that encourages cross-readings of each. Susan Laxton, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University, is currently writing a dissertation of the subject on surrealist photography. In conjunction with the exhibition the Wallach Art Gallery is publishing a fully illustrated catalogue with a scholarly essay by the curator.
