Author Description

"Here are Brassai's iconic scenes of nocturnal Paris with its prostitutes and thugs, its night workers, cafes, dance halls, and theaters; here are the fog-shrouded streets, monuments, and bridges; and here is the literary and artistic elite of the Parisian avant-garde, whom Brassai counted among his friends. Alongside these images, and providing a deeper understanding of his working method, are many previously unpublished contact prints and variations of familiar shots taken from a different angle, differently framed, or as part of a sequence that constitutes a veritable short story on film. Beyond these, there are examples of Brassai's nude studies and magnifications of commonplace objects, the engraved photographic plates that he called "transmutations," his drawings and sculpted pebbles, the graffiti he found so fascinating - indeed, everything to which he turned his imaginative mind throughout a long, productive life.". "With the close cooperation of Mme. Gilberte Brassai, the artist's widow, and with the support of Jean-Jacques Aillagon, president of the Centre Pomidou, and of Werner Spies, director of the Musee National d'Art Moderne in Paris, Alain Sayag and Annick Lionel-Marie have succeeded in producing the definitive summary of this important oeuvre. As an extra dimension, the book includes penetrating excerpts from the writings of Brassai himself and of his friends and admirers Henry Miller, Jacques Prevert, and Roger Grenier; an interview with Gilberte Brassai and a biography compiled by her; and an extensive bibliography and list of exhibitions."--BOOK JACKET.