This small volume of photographs of turn of the century Paris and its surroundings is my hands-down favorite photography book, and is a revelation of the potential poetic power of photography (sorry for the unintended alliteration...). Many of the pictures were taken in the early morning light so that there are few people out and about; just the empty cobblestone streets, the silent barroom, the mute statuary. There is amazing depth to many of the pictures which becomes positively three-dimensional if you look into them with one eye shut. But it isn't just Atget's photographs that make this book so special; I have other volumes of his work that don't move me in the same way at all. It is the simple and beautiful way that the book is laid out, so that you're only looking at one photograph at a time, as well as the excellent choice and sequencing of the photographs. Even the opening essay is probably the best essay about Atget's work that I've read. It is the combination of Atget's own extraordinary artistry coupled with the artistry with which this particular volume was put together that brings me back to it again and again, more than any of the many photography books on my shelf.