During the Second Empire (1852-1870), Baron Haussmann and Emperor Napoleon III reconstructed Paris into the City of Light. The government and other public institutions commissioned many photographers - among them Charles Marville, Henri Le Secq, Edouard-Denis Baldus, and Gustav Le Gray - to record the old Parisian architecture and to document the demolition and reconstruction. Shelly Rice explores not only the literal connections between photography and the transformation of Paris but also the metaphorical ones. All of the essays revolve around a central theme - the creation of modern urban space, in both two and three demensions, and the impact of this space on the lives of those who walked the streets of the 19th century.