Brassai

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Brassaï (pseudonym of Gyula Halász) (1899–1984). Hungarian-born photographer, draughtsman, sculptor, and writer who became a French citizen in 1948. He was born in Brasso, Transylvania (now Brasov, Romania), the son of a professor of French literature, studied art in Budapest and Berlin, settled in Paris in 1924, and adopted his pseudonym (from the name of his native town) in 1925. At this time he was a sculptor and draughtsman, but in 1926 he was introduced to photography by his countryman (later an American citizen) André Kertész (1894–1985), and although Brassaï continued to draw and make sculpture intermittently, it was as a photographer that he achieved international fame. In 1933 he published his first book, Paris de nuit, a haunting portrait of the city at night that made his reputation. The people and places of his adopted home continued to be his favourite subjects, and the American writer Henry Miller called him ‘the eye of Paris'. For the journal Minotaure (1933–9) he produced numerous photographs of artists in their studios, and this began a lifelong friendship with Picasso (who admired his drawings and encouraged him to continue making them). In 1948 Brassaï published Sculptures de Picasso, with a text by Kahnweiler (English translation 1949), and in 1964 he published Conversations avec Picasso (translated as Picasso and Company, 1966). Picasso in turn wrote an introduction to a book of photographs of graffiti that had attracted Brassaï as he roamed around Paris—Graffiti de Brassaï (1961). Brassaï illustrated many other books, including John Russell's Paris (1960).

Brassaï , 1899–1984, French photographer, b. Brassó, Hungary (now Braşov, Romania), as Gyula Halász. Particularly known for his nightime photographs of Paris, he studied art in Hungary and Germany before moving (1924) to that city. There he associated with Picasso, Braque, Miró, and other seminal modern artists. Fascinated by street life, Brassaï turned to photography to depict it, capturing on film artists, prostitutes, criminals, entertainers, and others on society's margins. Published in his first book, Paris after Dark (1933, tr. 1987, repr. as Paris by Night, 2001), and in Voluptés de Paris (1935), the photos earned him a succès de scandale and an international reputation. In addition to the city's low life, he also portrayed its vital daily life and its sparkling high life. Widely exhibited, his work also appears in several books, e.g., Henry Miller: The Paris Years (1975, tr. 1995) and Artists of My Life (1982).

Bibliography: See his Letters to My Parents (1980, tr. 1997); studies by M. Warehime (1998), A. W. Tucker and R. Howard (1999), and A. Lionel-Marie, ed. (2000).

Brassäi (1899–1984) French photographer and painter, b. Hungary as Guyla Halasz. Arriving in Paris in 1923, he worked as a journalist and painter, associating with Picasso and Dali. In 1930 Brassäi turned to photography, concentrating on pictures of Parisian nightlife and portraits, the latter being remarkable for their static quality.