Brassaï famous photos

Summary of Brassaï

Gyula Halász, or Brassaï - the pseudonym by which he has become much better known - is widely celebrated for his signature photographs of Parisian night life, and especially his book of collected photographs, Paris by Night. His breadth of range is however more expansive than that seminal collection might suggest. As a photographic freelancer and photojournalist, he contributed most to the idea of vernacular photography though, thanks in part to the Surrealists, he is often attributed with blurring any obvious distinction between what might be called street photography and what might qualify as fine art. Ultimately, it was his curiosity for the lived phenomena of twentieth-century urbanization, and of Paris in particular, that determined the subjects onto whom, and on which, he turned his lens.

Accomplishments

• Brassaï wanted to "immobilize movement" (to use his own words) rather than capture the dynamic pulse of the city through movement. Like Eugène Atget, Brassaï encountered Paris at street level and in unfamiliar places; and like Atget, he often saw b
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  Brassaï Conversations with Picasso

  In the early 1940s, the photographer Brassaï created a photo-chronicle of Picasso’s work. This book is a collection of Brassaï’s diary entries in which he paints a picture of the Parisian intellectual scene during the Second World War, with an unexpectedly candid revelation of Picasso’s personality.

  Gyula Halász adopted the pseudonym Brassaï (meaning ‘from Brassó’ ) in 1924, when he settled in Paris – a city that had charmed him from his earliest childhood. Brassaï would find success as a journalist decades later, on the publication of his photographic album Paris de nuit, in which the life of the city’s underbelly was captured in the smoky light of its street-lamps. Being both highly artistic and simultaneously incredibly honest, these photos made a powerful impression on the 1930s public, and won Brassaï international recognition. Major glossy magazines began to show an interest in the photographer, and he would later go on to work with Minotaure, Verve, Life a

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  Picasso and Brassaï

  Brassaï’s photographs of the 1930s have contributed to shaping the image we have of the French capital by evoking its artistic, social and intellectual scene. He X-rayed this great city, both by day and by night, from the underworld to the splendour of its social and artistic milieu. The Paris he captures shows the modern, cosmopolitan metropolis par excellence in a Europe marked by the major changes brought about by the industrial history of the nineteenth century. A city experienced and loved by him, and also by his colleague and friend Pablo Picasso.

  
  The Eiffel Tower seen through the gate of the Trocadero, 1930-1932. Photography by Brassaï © Estate Brassaï Succession-Philippe Ribeyrolles

  In December 1932 art critic Tériade invited Brassaï to photograph Picasso, his studio and his sculptures to illustrate the first issue of the legendary Surrealist publication Minotaure, a collaboration that led to a long and sincere friendship fuelled by mutual admiration. The photographer was fascinated by artist’s personality, and Picasso admired Brassaï’s unprejudice