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 What the Duck

Brassaï (1899–1984)
A Major Retrospective
Venue: Martin-Gropius-Bau
9 March to 28 May 2007

Brassaï, who was born in 1899 in what was then the Hungarian town of Brassó, emigrated in 1920 to Berlin, where he studied at the Academy of Art in Charlottenburg and got to know artists such as Wassily Kandinsky, Oskar Kokoschka and László Moholy-Nagy. In 1924 he moved to Paris, where he began his career not as a photographer but as a journalist working mainly for German-language magazines. His friend André Kertész took photos to accompany his articles. It was his journalistic work that eventually led him to photography.

During this time he also took an interest in literature and sculpture. In Paris in 1932 he adopted the pseudonym of Brassaï, derived from the name of his home town.

The same year Brassaï published “Paris by Night”, a book that made him world-famous. The Museum of Modern Art in New York included his work in an exhibition entitled “Photography: 1839-1937”. Using a Voigtländer camera, he was one of the first to master the art of night-time photography.

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From: Berliner Festspiele: Martin-Gropius-Bau, Brassaï (1899–1984)

More Brassai photographs

Just in case you have some spare time, here is something you can fill it with. Michael recently posted about Charlie Rose’s talks with several photographers, e.g. with HCB or Nachtwey (see embedded video below).

Rose talking with James Nachtwey, Robert Nickelsberg, Yuri Kozyrev & Kate Brooks

Many episodes of his show can be watched on video.google.com. You could go to Michael’s post as well where you’ll find a short list of direct links.

The boblycats are:

Fay

Torh

Susanna

Knut

Lasse

Stig

Teus

I’m reading M. W. Marien’s great book “Photography. A cultural History” and i am amazed by the photographs the pioneers of photography created.

Nicéphore Niépce

“View from the Window at Le Gras”- 1826 - The photograph which is considered to be the first one.

Louis Daguerre

“Boulevard du Temple”- 1839 - The first photograph to depict a person.

William Fox Talbot

“Leaves of Orchidea” - 1839 - Photogenic drawing negative

Southworth & Hawes

“The use of Aether for Anesthesia” - 1847

David Octavius Hill

“Mrs Elizabeth Hall, Newhaven fishwife” - 1843/46