Brassai: Paris by Night

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Lorant's layout produces some interesting juxtapositions of rich and poor experiencing the city by night. Forms dance in silent, slow movements beckoning you forward, hinting of a meaning slightly underwater, gently out of grasp. This book totally took my mind off my surroundings though and I was stuck in a reverie about summer and travel plans. First American edition: the original edition of Paris by Night, published as Paris de Nuit in 1933, contained 64 reproductions of photographs by Brassai, printed in heliogravure. I have included shortened (ellipsis) versions of the comments to them, which exists in the comments section of the book.

As a fan of French photography this is a book I just had to have, the pictures are not the highest quality, but considering the type of camera he was using and that they are taken at night the quality is probably what you would expect.The layout, with its characteristic full-page bleeds, never more felicitously employed, takes us from image to image, from page to page, and across night-time Paris, with effortless panache. One of the most important and influential photographers of the twentieth century, Brassai (1899-1984) moved to Paris from Hungary in 1924. Ein wunderbarer Bildband, aus einer Zeit, als Fotografieren noch eine hochkomplizierte Kunst war und Bilder entweder gleich, oder niemals etwas geworden sind.

Slowly my eyes become acclimatized to the night setting and I start to wonder about the people being photographed: I wonder about the photo of a lone prostitute standing at a corner, the light of an out of sight window or gas lamp casting her long shadow onto the sidewalk. We’re looking at these views of 1930s Parisian society,” says Lehtinen, “but they’re also these incredible reflections on broader themes of community, labor, sexuality, gender, class, solitude…alienation, strangeness. Continuing his work as a sculptor and painter, he supported himself by working as a journalist, adopting the pseudonym of Brassaï, derived from the name of his native city, Brassó. 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.

The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. A Monastic Brothel, Rue Monsieur-le-Prince, 1931In his quest to cover every facet of Paris, Brassaï also immersed himself in the city’s darker side.

Indeed, Brassaï wasn’t a native Frenchman, but a Hungarian born in Brassó, Transylvania (in modern-day Romania, which was previously under Austro-Hungarian rule). The back alleys, metro stations, and bistros he photographed are at turns hauntingly empty or peopled by prostitutes, laborers, thugs, and lovers. In the early thirties [Brassaï] set about photographing the night of Paris, especially at its more colorful and more disreputable levels. All quotes and shortened quotes are from the book and credited as: ©Brassaï: Paris by Night (Flammarion, 2011). In the early 21st century, the discovery of more than 200 letters and hundreds of drawings and other items from the period 1940–1984 has provided scholars with material for understanding his later life and career.Shooting at night was a technical challenge, and the photographs display an intriguing variety of light sources—gas lamps and their reflections in the Seine, a glowing brazier, the sparks of a workman’s grinding tool, a burning building with silhouetted firefighters, a checkerboard of lighted and dark windows on a facade. 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. Brassaï's famous, exquisite portrait of Paris under cover of the night; of humanity as light beaming out of holes punched in the darkness, simultaneously standing out against and hiding within the evening gloom. First published in French in 1932, this new edition brings one of Brassa's finest works back into print.

Lights from cars, windows, hotel signs, snowy grounds, and watery reflections enhance the sense of drama in his dreamy nocturnal shots. FIRST EDITION OF BRASSAÏ’S MASTERPIECE, ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL AND BEAUTIFUL OF ALL PHOTOBOOKS. The roads ebb by like frozen boiling rivers, through the blinding lights all effervescent yellow forever dimming upwards, hawking wares like glittering salvations from the heart of the night's pure diversion from diurnal life. He was one of the numerous Hungarian artists who flourished in Paris beginning between the World Wars. 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.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. 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. One should think of it as amongst the best produced and influential photobooks ever” ( The Photobook, Vol. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.