Eiffel Tower

Date

1929

Creator

Eiffel Tower exemplifies Kertész's experimental work with the Leica, an instrument that revealed his remarkable ability to capture the magic of circumstance. Without a stationary camera, and the need to wait for events, Kertész was able to take stock of the effects of light, anticipate events and capture them in an instant. With the light miniature camera, capable of such a fast exposure, he could crouch, reach and lean, and position the camera at odd angles, using his body to find a viewpoint, which was unorthodox at the time. Such a novel viewpoint is exemplified in this photograph, in which Kertész photographed the Eiffel Tower from inside, looking out and down. When the tower was built on the Champ de Mars in 1887-89 as the entrance to the World's Fair, it had three restaurants on its first level, along with an "Anglo-American Bar." After the fair on of the restaurants became a theatre, so even more visitors were drawn up to this level, with its outside walkways and elevated view of the city. Kertész took this photograph from the interior promenade on the first level of the tower, looking down upon the esplanade 187 feet (57 m) below. from Acton, A History of Photography at the University of Notre Dame: Twentieth Century (Notre Dame, 2019)