EYV - Part 4 - Research Points

Brassai and "Paris by Night"

I read the interview to Brassai by Tony Ray Jones for "Creative Camera" in 1970. I was impressed by the answer that Brassai gave to Jones' question "....Would you say that it’s more important for a student to get a general education in art and painting than it is to get an education solely in photography?....". Brassai states that ".... education and intelligence is important, but not art. Not artistic education, because when you take a photograph you may be very influenced by what you have seen in paintings and this happened to me often.....". Brassai declares this because he studied painting: he believes then that himself, Hungarian student, who met Kandinsky, studied in Budapest, Berlin and lived in Paris, was so influenced by French and Dutch impressionists that, unconsciously, did "homage" to these artists. Referring to his work "Paris by Night", Brassai says that he was influenced by George de la Tour with his candlelight paintings.

I made then a research of Brassai's photos:

 Brassai-Prostitute, Paris, 1932

 Brassai-Prostitute in the Quartier Italie, Paris, 1932

No Title, Brassai, 1932

No Title, Brassai, 1932

I chose a set of peopled photographs, even if Brassai shot beautiful empty, nocturnal landscapes.

I am impressed by the way he used streetlamp in order to illuminate the subject by the "rubens" method (light source at 45 or 60 degrees) in the first two photos.

In the third photo I am inspired from the position he took behind the group, that gets a frontal, harsh illumination by (I guess) a headlight.

Fourth photo is in a bistro, where Brassai exploits the ambient soft light, preserves the atmosphere of the location and the subject freshness.