Brassai: Paris Nocturne

Description

Walking the city streets at night, Brassai discovered a previously unseen world and captured it on camera. He shows us every face and every facet, from tough guys and showgirls to prostitutes and pleasure-seekers, from the bustling cafes and dance halls to the stillness of deserted streets and mist-shrouded monuments. Through his eyes, Paris becomes a world of shadows, in which light, the prerequisite for any photograph, is reduced to dimly lit windows, streetlamps in the fog, or reflections on a rain-soaked pavement. Although firmly rooted in its time and place, Brassai's night photography is nonetheless timeless in its appeal. Full of beauty, bleakness and insight, these images assure his place among the greatest photographers of the 20th century.

Quentin Bajac was formerly Chief Curator of Photography at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, and is now Chief Curator of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Sylvie Aubenas is Chief Curator of the Department of Prints and Photographs at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France.

'A truly excellent, historic body of work and is a clear example of why Brassai is still considered a master. A vital purchase for the serious collector of photography books' - Amateur Photographer 'Rich in detail and historical connections, we re-visit the images with a renewed insight' - Black & White Photography 'Brings together his most iconic images ... the photographs of people in bars and brothels certainly capture a specific view of nighttime Paris in the early 1930s' - The Royal Photographic Society