Between 1909 and 1915 Eugene Atget produced seven albums filled with photographs of Paris at the height of its belle epoque. The albums were prototypes for books that were never published. Now, Atget's albums are presented in full, edited with the sequencing and repetition that the great photographer intended. In addition, Atget's pictures are analyzed in a new way: as commercial picture documents produced by a photographer for the artists, archivists, antiquarians, designers and builders who were his clients. Molly Nesbidt defines and explores the nature of Atget's pictures in terms of their form, practical vision and relation to knowledge, providing a discussion of this commercial picture document. She also ofers a glimpse into the politics of Atget's ways of seeing: how he identified with the far left; how his sense of modern life and the variety in popular culture was exhibited through the artisans, cabarets, ragpicker carts and marketplaces he photographed.