Read Brassai: Letters to My Parents By

Brassai

Nicknamed the "Eye of Paris" by Henry Miller, Brassaï was one of the great European photographers
of the twentieth century. This volume of letters and photographs, many published for the first time,
chronicles the fascinating early years of Brassaï's life and artistic development in Paris and Berlin
during the 1920s and 1930s. "[Brassaï] is probably the only photographer--at least in France--to have
acquired such a vast audience and mastered his material to such a degree that he can express
himself with a flexibility and apparent ease that is almost literary in its nature."--Jean Gallien, Photo-
Monde "The letters that Brassaï wrote to his parents between 1920 and 1940 chronicle the
sometimes painful stages by which this gifted man hauled himself from penury to celebrity."--Peter
Hamilton, Times Literary Supplement "In these proud, protective, occasionally conscience-stricken
missives, the young man full of eager dreams emerges as one of the century's pioneering
photographers, revered for his lushly atmospheric portraits of Paris after dark."--Elle "A fascinating
insight into how a bright individual slowly found his calling."--Christine Schwartz Hartley, New York
Times Book Review

Pdf Brassai: Letters to My Parents By Brassai ,Read Brassai: Letters to My Parents By Brassai
,Reading Ebook Brassai: Letters to My Parents By Brassai ,Reading Ebook Brassai: Letters to My
Parents By Brassai ,Read PDF Brassai: Letters to My Parents By Brassai

Click here for Download Ebook Brassai: Letters to My Parents By Brassai PDF Free

Click here Ebook Brassai: Letters to My Parents By Brassai For DOWNLOAD

From Kirkus Reviews A volume of ebullient missives which track the artist's yearning for self-
expression, as well as the details of his thrifty bookkeeping, which staved off starvation and the need
to return home. Earnest is the adjective that best describes these bright, readable letters that
Brassa‹ (born Gyula Halasz in 1900) sent to his parents over the 20-year time-span of 192040. In
1920 he left Transylvania for Berlin, where he studied drawing at the Academy and wrote articles for
the newspapers back home, then moved to Paris, where he eventually earned recognition and a
living through the medium of photography. He mingled with both the cosmopolitan and bohemian,
including Picasso, who once remarked that Brassa‹ ``owned a gold mine but was exploiting a salt
mine'' by choosing photography over the fine arts. Brassa‹--who expresses no regret over his fate--
had begun taking pictures for pleasure, but found immediate success when some of his frank,
sensual photographs of the city's lively nocturnal existence (he was fascinated, he said in a letter, by
the way the city ``lives and moves'') were gathered and published as Paris at Night in 1931. After
that life became easier: He was sought out for commissions, and Alexander Korda, spotting Brassa‹'s
eye for line and framing, hired him as a cameraman. In the last letters, however, when Brassa‹ had
become established and sought after, he sounds unchanged, still diligently noting what he spends on
food and rent, offering a sanitized record of his romances, still self-absorbed but humble, and ever-
passionate about the world and his travels. The only difference is a sad note of maturity creeping in,
prompted by the news that his parents may have to leave their hometown as a result of imminent
war. The biographical sketch that emerges here through practical details compensates for the
dearth of reflections about art. (37 drawings and b&w photographs, not seen) -- Copyright ©1997,
Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Language Notes Text: English (translation) Original
Language: Hungarian About the Author Brassaï (born Gyula Halász, 1899-1984) was a
photographer, journalist, and author of many photographic monographs and literary works,
including Letters to My Parents, Conversations with Picasso, and Proust in the Power of
Photography.

Customer Reviews Most helpful customer reviews 3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
IN HIS OWN WORDS By MOVIE MAVEN Henry Miller called Brassai "the eye of Paris" and indeed
he was in all of his wonderful, singular, black and white photographs of the City of Light. Brassai
was, no doubt about it, one of the handful of great photographers who worked from 1900 til
midpoint in the last century. He tells us that in Paris, he had "an unquenchable thirst for
knowledge." Although he did many portraits of the famous like fellow photographer, Andre Kertesz,
and exiled president of Hungary, Mihaly Karolyi, and Picasso and the composer, Edgard Varese
(reproductions of which are included in this beautifully produced book) and the instantly
recognizable monuments and even the graffiti of the city, he was even more well known for his
images of the seamier side of Paris-- (known in the USA as "Paris Secrets") the night life which not
only included actors and dancers, but also prostitutes and transvestites. (he actually became so well-
known and liked in the bordellos, that he was allowed "free-reign" to photograph the women and
their clients!) A Hungarian by birth, he obviously loved all aspects of Paris. This is not only obvious
in his art, but also in his writing. From 1920 til 1940, Brassai (born Gyula Halasz in 1899) kept up an
almost religiously regular correspondence with his parents. These letters, some like diary entries,
show his great affection for his family and home, but also for this extraordinary city in which he
chose to live and work. If you are at all interested in how a great artist finds inspiration and how he
continues to grow from day to day, from triumph to triumph and indeed from struggle and
disappointment to more struggle and even more disappoinment, these letters will thrill you. I have
always been fascinated by Brassai (I own one of his images) and have never been able to find a
satisfying biography that tells anything of his early life and history. Well, here is that book and it is
in his own words and illustrated with several of his fine photographs. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. 6
of 7 people found the following review helpful. A lovely book about Paris and Art By A Customer This
lovely book gives us the portrait of an artist as a VERY unusual young man: the great photographer
Brassai. Brassai proves himself a wonderful writer as well as photographer. His love of Paris in the
1920s and 1930s is everywhere evident--the glamour, the grime, the artistic urgency of the place,
the crazy characters who called it home. Letters to My Parents is a must-read to anyone interested
in this idiosyncratic artist and establishment of photography as an art form in the early twentieth
century. See all 2 customer reviews...

Ebook Brassai: Letters to My Parents By Brassai ,PDF Brassai: Letters to My Parents By

Brassai ,Read Brassai: Letters to My Parents By Brassai ,Read Ebook [PDF] Brassai:
Letters to My Parents By Brassai ,PDF Brassai: Letters to My Parents By Brassai