Brassai(Gyula Halasz)

September 9, 1899 - July 8, 1984

• Brassai was born Gyula Halasz September 9, 1899 in Brasso, Hungary (now part of Romania)

• Brassai is the pseudonym that Gyula Halsz went by later on in life meaning “of Brasso”

• As a young man, he studied painting and sculpting at the Acadamy of Fine Arts in Budapest

• 1924 he moved to Paris and became a journalist

• While working he fell in love with Paris and began to photograph

• He felt that photography allowed him to express a completely different view of the world

Paris Photographs:Paris at Night

• Demonstrated Paris streets at night using extreme light conditions

• Created a social study by photographing the city’s nocturnal inhabitants: prostitutes, dancers, restaurant diners, music hall goers, etc.

• Photographed several pieces of graffiti from crumbling walls of buildings

Brassai photographed many of his friends

including:• Salvador Dali• Pablo Picasso• Henry Matisse• Alberto Giacometti• Jean Jenet

• In 1940 when the German army occupied Paris, they insisted on Brassai getting a license for practicing photography

• Brassai refused, thus going back to drawing, which he did for the rest of his life

• He was also the author of 17 books and several articles

• Brassai died on July 8, 1984 in the south of France

• Although he had several accomplishments throughout the art world, he will always be most admired for his seedy pictures of the streets of Paris