Charles Marville, Rue des Bourdonnais - Getty Museum

This atmospheric view of a wide Paris street, taken shortly after a rainfall, is one of four hundred such images created by Charles Marville in 1865. At that time, Napoléon III's architect and city planner, Baron Haussmann, was planning a broad program of civic improvements in Paris that would extensively alter the layout of the city's boulevards and streets. Before demolition began, city officials commissioned Marville to create photographic records of the existing avenues. New roads cut through ancient neighborhoods, while streets such as the rue des Bourdonnais were realigned and widened.

Charles Marville (born Charles François Bossu; 13 March 1813 – 19 October 1879) - French photographer born in Paris was appointed as the official photographer of the city of Paris in the early 1860s. He was one of the first photographers to use albumen printing process, which produced highly detailed and tonally rich prints. He also experimented with salt prints, cyanotype, and platinum prints, 19th-century architecture, and urban landscapes.