Brassaï L'universel

The photo book on Paris by Brassai, the famous photographer and the friend of Picasso, is fine; it describes the past and often already lost Paris. As frequent visitors of this city. "la ville lumiere," we liked it much, my wife got it as a X-mas present. The deliveration by mail from the USA was extremely rapid and exacted our Finnish address.

Paris in the years between the two World Wars holds a special attraction for me. I like to visit the period through the detective stories of Georges Simenon and the spy thrillers of Alan Furst. There is no better way to supplement these novels than perusing the Paris photos of Brassai. His photos of late night Paris are some of the most atmospheric images ever produced. What Wegee was to New York City, Brassai is to Paris of the 1930's. No single photographer captured the feel of the era better than Brassai. The German Publishing Company Taschen is famous for its art books. The quality of this book is high and price is very reasonable. "Brassai Paris" is a hardcover book and is 192 pages long. Most of the pages are high quality reproductions of Brassai's best photos printed on good paper. This is a great photography book being offered at a rock bottom price. Highly recommended.

Everyone in the know knows that Taschen is a top-of-the-line publisher of Art and Photography books so naturally this one is beautifully done. However, even Taschen can make blunders. The flaps of the cover on this book are a dark shade of lipstick red with small black lettering. Ironically the blurb on these flaps describes Bendikt Taschen's twenty-fifth anniversary as an art book publisher. Because of the tiny black type on the dark red background it is virtually impossible to read about how great Taschen books are. Fortunately, this is the only flaw I found in this excellent book, it's just amusing that the mistake involves the text it does. At least the reader can read the testimonial on the back cover's flap because it is in larger black type and simply proclaims "The most exquisite books on the planet." Brassai didn't take his first pictures until 1929. In 1932 a journalist friend told Brassai he knew of a publisher who wanted to publish a book of photographs of Paris at night but had been unable to find a photographer who could handle the task. Brassai had already been exhaustively exploring exactly that subject with his camera. Later that same year in December 1932 Brassai's first book PARIS DE NUIT was published. Almost a dozen more books followed during his long life and career. It wasn't until 1976 that the more erotic pictures of Paris nightlife were published in Brassai's LE PARIS SECRET DES ANNEES 30, which is one of this reviewer's favorites. Those pictures that were also taken in the 1930's were too hot for a publisher to risk bankruptcy and or jail by publishing before 1976 when the obscenity laws were relaxed somewhat. This volume contains some pictures from all or at least most of Brassai's books including LES SCULPTURES DE PICASSO, GRAFFITI, PICASSO & CO., HENRY MILLER: GRANDEUR NATURE and THE ARTISTS OF MY LIFE. Brassai, who was also an accomplished artist in several mediums, was a member of the Bohemian Montparnasse or what I call the "Camelot of Art." He was friends with most of the artists and writers of the period. Much of his early photography was to document them and their work for publication. He was their contemporary and while his non-photography work is also masterful, it was photography that was to make him famous. Throughout his life he kept switching back and forth working in various art mediums. He loved the variety and couldn't, wouldn't really specialize in any one facet of art. He liked his freedom too much to only practice one of his passions. He was a master craftsman of several including writing. He often wrote articles to pay his bills especially after he first arrived from his native Transylvania where he was born in 1899. I apologize in advance but when I learned that Brassai was from Transylvania I could not keep myself from wondering about his fascination with photographing Paris after dark. He loved those pitch-black forays and at one time was familiar with the most unsavory and criminal charac

Brassaï is one of those indispensable artists, which rarely come along every 50 years or so. Photographer, writer, painter, film maker, he recorded for us what must have been the most fruitful era for art, in the most fruitful place for art: Paris. He knew everyone from the dadaists to the surrealists and the cubists. He formed an uneasy friendship with Picasso, which resulted on his book My Conversations With Picasso, a first hand account of the comings and goings in the artist's life and studio, that I highly recommend. But it is as a photographer that he excels, providing for us unforgettable images of the city that he loved. Paris by Night, one of his colections of photos, gives us the wanderings about, of an artist and his camera at a time at which the city is at it's most beautiful, without any other equipment than a tripod to hold his camera steady. This book also includes The Secret Paris and a wonderful section of artis's portraits: Dalí, Picasso, Matisse and many others.

i was really happy with this book. there is some great text which accompanies the images that i had not read before. overall, i totally recommend! i love brassai and i have only seen a couple of his books that are better.