Brassai: Paris by Night

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In 1933 Brassaï published 64 of these scenes in his first book of photographs, Paris de Nuit, which became an immediate hit.

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. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Lorant's layout produces some interesting juxtapositions of rich and poor experiencing the city by night. He snapped pictures of the meat porters and kissing couples of the streets, and the giddy inhabitants of restaurants and lounges. When the allies liberated the city in 1944, Brassaï leaned out of his apartment window to watch—he was, as ever, the fearless voyeur.I particularly like the quotation from Brassai himself at the beginning – I often feel that nothing is more surreal than reality (especially in these interesting times) and it is always comforting to know that others both now and in the past have felt the same. 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. Lights from cars, windows, hotel signs, snowy grounds, and watery reflections enhance the sense of drama in his dreamy nocturnal shots.

If I have any criticism, it is that there are too few pages and images in the book but that was Brassai's personal choice.

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. In the early thirties [Brassaï] set about photographing the night of Paris, especially at its more colorful and more disreputable levels. While his images reflect the glitter and gaiety the city was famous for—the brilliantly lit grand staircase of the Opéra on a gala night, the Eiffel Tower blazing with lights in the shape of shooting stars, cancan girls doing high kicks at the Bal Tabarin, Brassaï also included the grittier side of Paris by night: a row of clochards sleeping under the colonnade of the Bourse de Commerce; an elderly homeless woman dressed in the tattered remnants of her former finery; a ragpicker crouched on the cobblestones, digging through a trashcan. 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.

This book may not have all of Brassai's best works, but it is the most successful collection that I have seen in capturing the spirit of Brassai's photography. 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.Night is not the negative of day; black surfaces and white are not merely transposed, as on a photographic plate, but another picture altogether emerges at nightfall. Brass's ability to capture the mysticism of 'Paris by Night' instills a romance and love of fi noir for all. The current reissue of Paris by Night brings one of the last century’s key photographic works back into print.

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. One of the most important and influential photographers of the twentieth century, Brassai (1899-1984) moved to Paris from Hungary in 1924. 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. Beyond such experiences that the book brings, stands the work itself, the effort that Brassaï must have put in to capture such photographs in 1933.Mirrors on either side of the couple’s well-coiffed heads reflect their loving looks and blur the surrounding restaurant. Their nocturnal surroundings fascinated the artist, whose photographs are as much an exploration of the technical challenge of portraying darkness as portraits of a hauntingly dramatic night world. FIRST EDITION OF BRASSAÏ’S MASTERPIECE, ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL AND BEAUTIFUL OF ALL PHOTOBOOKS. 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. 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.