inspiring photographer : BRASSAI

“What characterizes a good photographer is that he has both that journalistic sense (he seizes whatever is interesting in the world) and, at the same time, the sense of form. For me, the criterion of a good photograph is that it be unforgettable."

Brassaï was born in Brasso, Transylvania in 1899. He lived in Paris for most of his life. He died in 1984. He is known for Brassaï, the "eye of Paris," is known for his urban photographs of Paris during the 1930s.Among his popular images are "Rue de Rivoli, 1937"; "La Femme De 'L'homme Gorille' Dans Sa Danse De Loie Fuller"

Rue de Rivoli, Paris, 1937

Hungarian-born Brassai (real name Gyula Halasz) come to Paris to be a painter and took up photography at Andre Kertesz's suggestion to make a living. Paris by Night, (1933) showed pictures taken inside the cafes and clubs frequented by the Paris underworld.

Brassai photographed many scenes of Paris, from urban graffiti to dancing in the streets. He sees Paris as a subject of infinite grandeur, his photographs providing a sensitive and often extremely dramatic exploration of its people, its resplendent avenues, and endlessly intriguing byways. Brassai’s reputation was established with the publication of his first book, Paris at Night, now a modern classic. Some of the pictures in this book are sharply defined, brilliantly lit, while others capture the mistiness of rainy nights. Still others concentrate on the shadowy life of the underworld.

As Brassai created more and more pictures of Parisian life, his fame became international. His pictures of "Graffiti" (writings and drawings scribbled by countless individuals on the crumbling walls of buildings) were the subject of his one - man show at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Brassai has indicated something of his reason for making these pictures in the following statement: "the thing that is magnificent about photography is that it can produce images that incite emotion based on the subject matter alone."

Brassai has said many useful things about photography; one of the most valuable is the following statement: "We should try, without creasing to tear ourselves constantly by leaving our subjects and even photography itself from time to time, in order that we may come back to them with reawakened zest, with the virginal eye. That is the most precious thing we can possess".