Fête du Trone (Street Fair)

"Armand the Giant on Display with the Smallest Man in the World," the sign tantalizingly proclaims. Barely visible within the open tent, a sideshow still life of empty chairs and shoes beckons. Eugène Atget photographed the entrance to this street fair from at least three angles, including this one and a close-up of the display just within the tent.

Between the circular vignetting caused by the shifting of Atget's short-focus lens and the string of lights hanging over the top of the artificially grand façade, the tent appears like a two-dimensional set rather than any kind of space that could be entered. The photograph is a study of textures and the visual trickery associated with the street-fair trade. Like a good sideshow attraction, it seduces with its grandiose columns, marble surfaces, and larger-than-life painted illustrations, but what lies within may or may not measure up to such promises. Upon closer inspection, the "marble" base is held together with two strips of tape in the lower right corner, and a rough stick wedged into a corner of the tent opening indicates a less-than-solid structure.