Wisdom Cries Out in the Streets – Louis Stettner

LOUIS STETTNER has had a long and distinguished career in photography. Starting at the age of thirteen, encouraged by Alfred Stieglitz and Paul Strand, his photographs are now in such permanent collections as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

While there have been significant exhibitions in the United States and Europe, his work remains relatively unknown to the general public. Greatly appreciated by fellow photographers and discerning collectors, the problem as photography critic Kelly Wise aptly states: “rarely is his work shown in breadth.”

Slowly a legend has blossomed about his early photographs (1947 – 1972) that has strongly influenced young photographers. Yet its true scope and depth has been only available to those
fortunate enough to visit his print room.

There is a most stirring and perceptive Introduction by his teacher and lifelong friend, the famous French photographer Brassai (Stettner is the only photographer to be honored): “Stettner has always been fully conscious that the role of the photographer is not to turn away from all reference to reality, but on the contrary to express a profound experience with it.”

From: Stettner’s Biography on Bonni Benrubi Gallery (pdf)

photos: Bonni Benrubi Gallery

Brassai Retrospective in Berlin

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