| Names: | | | Dates: | 1899, 9 September - 1984, 8 July | | Born: | Transylvania (now Romania) - Brasso, Siebenburgen (North of Bucharest) | | Active: | France | | Gender: | Male |
French sculptor, writer, draughtsman and photographer.
There are currently over 1,400 high resolution scans of the work of Brassaï held by the Réunion des musées nationaux (RMN) - Agence photographique (http://www.photo.rmn.fr/cf/htm/home.aspx) which brings together material from French national museums. The original images are housed within a number of collections including those of the Pompidou Centre and the private collection of Mme Brassaï. The negatives, contacts and prints that he took on Picasso were given by Mme Brassaï to the Musée Picasso.
Through his career he worked with a number of different galleries. In the late 1960s, Brassai worked with Robert Schoelkopf, then Lee Witkin and then Marlborough Gallery in the 1970s, but for over the past twenty years the exclusive dealer of Brassai‘s work has been Edwynn Houk.
The status of the Estate is unclear at present but Agnes de Gouvion St. Cyr is the executor and she is also Inspecteur Generale for Photography in the French Ministry of Culture.
[Special thanks to Stuart Alexander for his advice on this.]Preparing biographies
Biography provided by Focal Press
Motivated by Kertész and influenced by the surrealists, Brassaï contrived stylized tableaus of risqué Paris night life that revealed the subconscious "social fantastic," a place of the erotic and dangerous that lay outside of mainstream society. Dubbed "The Eye of Paris," Brassaï subjects re-enacted their concealed activities for his camera and flash, delivering a theatrical version of a candid moment that demystified and humanized the people from the world of night.
(Author: Robert Hirsch - Independent scholar and writer)
Michael Peres (Editor-in-Chief), 2007, Focal Encyclopedia of Photography, 4th edition, (Focal Press) [ISBN-10: 0240807405, ISBN-13: 978-0240807409]
(Used with permission)
                   
Readings on, or by, individual photographers
2003, Resonancias: Brassaï > Paris / Colom < Barcelona, (Barcelona: Fundacio Foto Colectania) [LL_REF:2346 *B]
Bernadac, Marie-Laure, 1987, Picasso vu par Brassaï, (Paris: Musée Picasso/Réunion des Musées Nationaux) [LL_REF:2330 *B]
Brassaï, 1933, Paul Morand: Paris de Nuit, (Paris: Arts et Métiers Graphiques) [LL_REF:693 *B]
Brassaï, 1933, Paul Morand: Paris de nuit / Paris After Dark, (Paris: Arts et Métiers Graphiques / London: B.T. Batsford Ltd.) [LL_REF:2310 *B]
Brassaï, 1935 (ca), Voluptés de Paris, (Paris: Paris-Publications) [LL_REF:2309 *B]
Brassaï, 1948, Les Sculptures de Picasso, (Editions du Chêne) [LL_REF:2313 *B]
Brassaï, 1949, Histoire de Marie, (Paris: Editions du Point du Jour) [LL_REF:2314 *B]
Brassaï, 1952, Brassaï, (Paris: Editions Neuf) [LL_REF:2315 *B]
Brassaï, 1954, Seville en Fete [LL_REF:2316 *B]
Brassaï, 1963, Brassaï, (Paris: Bibliotheque Nationale) [Exhibition catalogue] [LL_REF:2311 *B]
Brassaï, 1964, Conversations avec Picasso, (Paris: Editions Gallimard) [LL_REF:2320 *B]
Brassaï, 1966, Picasso & Co., (Garden City: Doubleday) [LL_REF:2321 *B]
Brassaï, 1968, Brassaï, (New York: Museum of Modern Art) [Introduction by Lawrence Durrell] [LL_REF:692 *B]
Brassaï, 1975, Henry Miller: Grandeur nature, (Paris: Editions Gallimard) [LL_REF:2323 *B]
Brassaï, 1976, Brassaï: The Secret Paris of the 30's [LL_REF:2324 *B]
Brassaï, 1978, Henry Miller: Rocher heureux, (Paris: Editions Gallimard) [LL_REF:2325 *B]
Brassaï, 1979, Nõchtliches Paris/ Paris de Nuit, (Munich: Schirmer/Mosel) [LL_REF:2326 *B]
Brassaï, 1982, Les artistes de ma vie, (Paris: Editions Denoel) [LL_REF:2327 *B]
Brassaï, 1984, Brassaï, (Tokyo: Yurakucho Asahi Gallery) [LL_REF:2328 *B]
Brassaï, 1986, Brassaï, (Toulouse: Galerie Municipale du Château d'eau) [LL_REF:2329 *B]
Brassaï, 1987, Brassaï. Paris de Nuit, (Tokyo: Misuzu Shobo) [LL_REF:2332 *B]
Brassaï, 1987, Brassaï: Paris by Night, (New York: Pantheon Books) [LL_REF:2331 *B]
Brassaï, 1988, Brassaï: Foto's uit de museumverzameling, (Antwerp: Museum voor Fotografie) [LL_REF:2333 *B]
Brassaï, 1988, Brassai: Paris le Jour Paris la Nuit [LL_REF:2334 *B]
Brassaï, 1993, Brassaï: the Eye of Paris, (New York: Houk Friedman) [LL_REF:2336 *B]
Brassaï, 1997, Brassaï. Marcel Proust sous l'emprise de la photographie, (Paris: Editions Gallimard) [LL_REF:2337 *B]
Brassaï, 2000, Brassai: the Monograph, (New York: Little, Brown and Co.) [LL_REF:2339 *B]
Brassaï, 2001, Paris By Night by Brassai, Paul Morand, (Bulfinch Press) [LL_REF:2312 *B]
Brassaï, 2001, The Secret Paris of the 1930s, (New York: Thames and Hudson) [LL_REF:694]
Brassaï, 2003, Resonancias: Brassaï > Paris / Colom < Barcelona, (Barcelona: Fundacio Foto Colectania) [LL_REF:2340 *B]
Brassaï, 2007, Gyulus. Brassai képek és dokumentumok, (Budapest: Magyar Fotografiai Muzeum) [LL_REF:2341 *B]
Brassaï, 2009, Brassaï: la maison que j'habite, (Paris: Somogy éditions d'art) [LL_REF:2342 *B]
Brassaï & Modiano, Patrick, 1990, Paris Tendresse, (Paris: Editions Hoebeke) [LL_REF:2335 *B]
Miller, Henry, 1958, Stille Dage I Clichy, (Copenhagen: Hans Reitzel Forlag) [LL_REF:2317 *B]
Miller, Henry, 1968, Stille Tage in Clichy, (Hamburg: Rowohlt) [LL_REF:2322 *B]
Russell, John & Brassaï, 1960, Paris, (London: B.T. Batsford, Ltd.) [LL_REF:2318 *B]
Soucek, Ludvik, 1962, Brassaï, (Prague: S.N.K.L.U.) [LL_REF:2319 *B]
Tucker, Anne Wilkes, 1999, Brassai: the Eye of Paris, (Houston: Museum of Fine Arts Houston) [LL_REF:2338 *B]
Warehime, Marja, 1996, Brassaï. Images of Culture and the Surrealist Observer, (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press) [LL_REF:695]
If you feel this list is missing a significant book or article please let me know - Alan - alan@luminous-lint.com
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Family history
If you are related to this photographer and interested in tracking down your extended family we can place a note here for you to help. It is free and you would be amazed who gets in touch.
alan@luminous-lint.com |
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 | Brassaï: Bookcovers: Paris de nuit |
| | Brassaï: Bookcovers: Voluptés de Paris |
|  | Brassaï: Graffiti |
|  | Brassaï: Studio stamps |
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All photographs by this photographer
The following books are useful starting points to obtain brief biographies but they are not substitutes for the monographs on individual photographers. |
• Auer, Michele & Michel 1985 Encyclopedie Internationale Des Photographes de 1839 a Nos Jours / Photographers Encylopaedia International 1839 to the present (Hermance, Editions Camera Obscura) 2 volumes [A classic reference work for biographical information on photographers.]
• Beaton, Cecil & Buckland, Gail 1975 The Magic Eye: The Genius of Photography from 1839 to the Present Day (Boston and Toronto: Little, Brown & Company) p.149 [Useful short biographies with personal asides and one or more example images.]
• Capa, Cornell (ed.) 1984 The International Center of Photography: Encyclopedia of Photography (New York, Crown Publishers, Inc. - A Pound Press Book) p.80-81
• Evans, Martin Marix (Executive ed.) 1995 Contemporary Photographers [Third Edition] (St. James Press - An International Thomson Publishing Company) [Expensive reference work but highly informative.]
• Fernandez, Horacio (ed.) 2000 Fotografía Pública: Photography in Print 1919-1939 (Aldeasa) p.65-67 [This Spanish exhibition catalogue is one of the best sources for illustrations of photomontage and book design for the period between the two World Wars.]
• International Center of Photography 1999 Reflections in a Glass Eye: Works from the International Center of Photography Collection (New York: A Bulfinch Press Book) p.210 [Includes a well written short biography on Brassaï with example plate(s) earlier in book.]
• Lenman, Robin (ed.) 2005 The Oxford Companion to the Photograph (Oxford: Oxford University Press) [Includes a short biography on Brassaï.]
• Weaver, Mike (ed.) 1989 The Art of Photography 1839-1989 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press) p.452-453 [This exhibition catalogue is for the travelling exhibition that went to Houston, Canberra and London in 1989.]
• Witkin, Lee D. and Barbara London 1979 The Photograph Collector’s Guide (London: Secker and Warburg) p.94-95 [Long out of print but an essential reference work - the good news is that a new edition is in preparation.]
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If there is an analysis of a single photograph or a useful self portrait I will highlight it here. |
Photographic collections are a useful means of examining large numbers of photographs by a single photographer on-line.
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| "..the thing that is magnificent about photography is that it can produce images that incite emotion based on the subject matter alone." | | "In the absence of a subject with which you are passionately involved, and without the excitement that drives you to grasp it and exhaust it, you may take some beautiful pictures, but not a photographic oeuvre." | | "The purpose of art is to raise people to a higher level of awareness than they would otherwise attain on their own." | | "There are many photographs which are full of life but which are confusing and difficult to remember. It is the force of an image which matters." |
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