(Gyula Hala’sz)
Brassai
History
Brassai (Gyula Hala’sz)French, 1899-1984
Brassai is regarded as the photographer whose pictures form the basis upon which many non-Parisians' ideas about Paris are formed. He made photographs of the architecture; people in cafes and bars; workers who kept the city going after dark; clochards who lived under the bridges; and performers, artists, and writers of the period.
Born Gyula Hala'sz in the (now Rumanian) town of Brasso (whence his adopted name) at the turn of the century, Brassai's original ambition was to paint. He studied art in Hungary and Germany as a youth, finally coming to Paris in 1924 as a journalist.
For the first six years of his life in Paris Brassai had avoided photography, considering the medium to be too mechanical and impersonal. His opinion changed quickly when he saw the results of his first efforts to record Paris after dark. He immersed himself in his new-found pastime and in 1933 produced a book of night pictures entitled Paris de Nuit, which met with critical acclaim. Many of Brassai's pictures of the city of Paris were used in magazines; others remained unseen and unpublished until later in his career. These pictures depict in a non-judgmental and keenly observed fashion the prostitutes, opium addicts, lovers (both homosexual and heterosexual), street hoodlums, performers, and nighttime revellers of prewar Paris.
Brassai's reputation as a photographer had reached the United States by the mid-thirties, and some of his work was included in an exhibition entitled Photography: 1839-1937 at the Museum of Modern Art. In the 1950s Brassai turned his camera on the graffiti he found in his wanderings through the city streets; he also traveled and photographed in various parts of France and Spain. He continued to work in other media, making drawings, paintings, and sculpture. His friendship with Picasso resulted in a highly acclaimed book on the artist and his contemporaries, Conversations avec Picasso, published in 1964.
"Bijou" of the Montmartre cabarets
From "Paris by Night"
1933
Arc de Triomphe
From "Paris by Night"
1933
Open Gutter
From "Paris by Night"
1933
Notre Dame from the Ile Saint-Louis
From "Paris by Night"
1933
"House of illusion"
From "Paris by Night"
1933
Obelisk and fountains in the Place de la Concorde
From "Paris by Night"
1933
