Brassai: Paris by Night

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The current reissue of Paris by Night brings one of the last century’s key photographic works back into print. 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. After fighting in the Austro-Hungarian army during World War I and studying art at Berlin-Charlottenburg’s Academy of Fine Arts, the artist moved to Paris in 1924.

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 was one of the numerous Hungarian artists who flourished in Paris beginning between the World Wars. 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. I no longer have the book as, during a house move many years ago, about half of my book collection and several items of photo equipment were lost. His jacket and her thick sweater suggest winter weather, from which this single, cozy booth offers refuge.

Lorant's layout produces some interesting juxtapositions of rich and poor experiencing the city by night. Brassaï’s camera lingered on prostitutes, gang members, and the queer community in the interwar era—he gained entrance to Le Monocle, a lesbian nightclub in Montmartre; and Suzy’s, a brothel, among other underground venues. This book totally took my mind off my surroundings though and I was stuck in a reverie about summer and travel plans.

The tiny versions at the back of the book in which each scene is identified are so much sharper with higher contrast than the photographs in the body of the book. The world that Brassaï had photographed with such adoration was gone, though he continued to live and work in France until his death in 1984.Yet it’s their deeply emotive, cinematic quality that transforms his subjects into characters with intergenerational appeal—none more so than the city of Paris itself. Titled Couple d’amoureux dans un petit café, quartier Italie ( Loving couple in a small cafe, Italy district), the photograph exudes lust and old-world glamour, exemplifying just what made the photographer’s vision so enduring; more than eight decades after its creation, the image remains as evocative and seductive as ever.

George Brassaï (pseudonym of Gyula Halász) (9 September 1899 — 8 July 1984) was a Hungarian photographer, sculptor, and filmmaker who rose to international fame in France in the 20th century.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 images are matte and not particularly contrasty, and I don't think they are shown to their full advantage. Working as a journalist by day, by night he roamed the streets of the capital and visited its bistros, sharing moments in the lives of the prostitutes and peddlers, down-and-outs, and illicit lovers who lived on the margins of society.