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Brassai: Paris by Night

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First published in 1933, Paris By Night, of which I own the fine reissue by Flammarion (2011), feels like more than a book: it is a steppingstone in photography, and offers a look into the Paris night, as a world complete in itself, with its own story, its own characters.

Ein Buch für die, die sich mit Fotokunst auseinandersetzen und die Zeit zwischen den Kriegen interessant finden. As the Paris of these images is that preceding 1933 when the book was first self-published in its original form, they are almost impossible to re-take now; the city has seen too many changes. My recollection, which may be wrong, of the earlier edition (probably from the 60s or 70s) is that it was printed on glossy paper, but one reviewer is of the opinion that the paper used here is more matte. Brassaï moved in the same circles as the surrealists–he met Picasso in 1932, and worked on Le Minotaure, the famous surrealist review.In 1933 Brassaï published 64 of these scenes in his first book of photographs, Paris de Nuit, which became an immediate hit. When 25-year-old Gyula Halász arrived in Paris from his native Hungary in 1924 he’d been trained as an artist and soon found his way into the circles frequented by Picasso, Miró, Dalí and Henry Miller. The black-and-white photographs, printed on matte black pages, have a misty, dreamlike, almost magical look, a perfect match for their poetic content. Paris by Night, first published in 1933, features sixty-two of these poetic images, and has become an acknowledged classic of urban photography.

There, in 1932, he changed his given name, Gyula Halász, to a doctored version of his hometown’s name—his roots as a foreigner remained crucial to his vision and identity. I have included shortened (ellipsis) versions of the comments to them, which exists in the comments section of the book. The gradation of tones is wonderfully subtle, describing an apparently infinite range of black and near-black tones. While his images reflect the glitter and gaiety the city was famous for—the brilliantly lit grand staircase of the Opéra on a gala night, the Eiffel Tower blazing with lights in the shape of shooting stars, cancan girls doing high kicks at the Bal Tabarin, Brassaï also included the grittier side of Paris by night: a row of clochards sleeping under the colonnade of the Bourse de Commerce; an elderly homeless woman dressed in the tattered remnants of her former finery; a ragpicker crouched on the cobblestones, digging through a trashcan. It was almost certainly my first exposure to any of his works although I have bought other books of his photography in the many years since.La Môme Bijou, Bar de la Lune, Montmartre, 1932Gyula Halász was born in Brassó, Hungary (now Brașov, Romania) and lived most of his adult life in Paris.

In one of Brassaï’s most famous photographs, a man and a woman canoodle in the corner of a Parisian coffee house in the early 1930s, smoke curling from a lit cigarette between the woman’s fingers. He was one of the numerous Hungarian artists who flourished in Paris beginning between the World Wars. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions.All quotes and shortened quotes are from the book and credited as: ©Brassaï: Paris by Night (Flammarion, 2011). He captured the grittier aspects of the city, but also documented ballet, opera and high society, including his friends and contemporaries such as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí and Henri Matisse. Roaming Paris streets by night in the early 1930s, Brassa created arresting images of the city's dramatic nocturnal landscape.

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