Brassai is a French photographer, who took his name from his town of birth and part of Hungary in Translyvania. He took photographs in the night of Paris focusing on collection of prostitutes, pimps, madams, transvestites as well as others in 1933.
This photograph is part of Brassai’s “Pleasures of Paris” photography collection.
Brassai has created this photograph in Paris late at night in a dark alley during the time of the 1930’s.The artwork, shown above, is about love and lust. Judging from the type of photographs Brassai takes this woman is a prostitute. This photo is about the men using women for his own pleasurable needs shown as the man very comfortably embraces the women while the women uncomfortably forces herself to continue interacting with this man as her arms seem tense almost like she wanting to push herself off the man. This photograph could be about how hard a life some women in Paris live to the point of selling themselves and going through mental upset just to earn some money to help her survive in life. Brassai uses visual elements such as colour and tone as the women has her back against an almost black wall while the man has a brighter background to him. Shape has been used in this photograph as the shape around the man is brighter than the rest of the image using shades to draw your eyes to the characters in the centre.
This photograph is from Brassai’s “Paris by Night ” collection.
This photograph has been taken at Notre Dame sometime in the 1930’s at the night of Paris. The photograph suggests that the gargoyles of Notre Dame are the silent watchers of Paris. They will watch over the city as it sleeps. Some of the most famous gargoyles in the world sit atop cathedrals. Some experts believe they were popular on churches because of the widespread belief that they protected against evil spirits. Brassai has used visual elements with his use of tone from the shade and colour of Paris and composition with his uses of the rule of thirds by placing the gargoyles at the right axis line on the photograph obeying the rule of space by having them stare into the space.
This photograph is from Brassai’s collection of “Paris at Night” photographs.
This photograph has been taken in the streets of Paris in France at night in the 1930’s. This artwork shows a lonely woman in the twilight of Paris, standing on a street corner. This could photograph could be about the hardship and trouble women go to where they sacrifice their nights and sleep to roam the streets of Paris and waiting for cold-eyed pleasure seekers. There are features of visual element as for example line is used on the shutter of the stops. This is very similar to what I have explored in my visual elements section of photography, using shutters to capture lines. He has also captured the visual element of pattern with the pattern of the floor in which the woman is standing on meaning that the path she is going down is organised and is a continuous pattern. He uses composition with the rule of space to show the empty street the woman is facing. He uses Tone to capture and display the dark lighting behind the women’s back, maybe for connotations of a dark shameful past, and the bright light of the street to contrast this darkness the woman stands in.
The images are all different. The photographs must be single photographs and just capture the event so that it is still, Bassai said himself “I like living beings; I like life, but I like to capture it in such a way that the photo does not move. I don't really like the snapshot, the Leica with its 39 views, all of which distract attention”. – Brassai. This shows the ways and methods behind Brassai’s photographs showing how he doesn’t like to take multiple photographs with in a similar area because Brassai quotes that he had no interest in taking dozens of shots of the same scene.”
I believe these photographs represent the nightlife people will never know, especially for era these photographs were taken as it was during the rise of the Nazi party between World Wars. These photographs are in the genre of documentary as Brassai studies and captures real life events hoping to expose what we don’t see from the city of love. He takes us into a more realistic world rather than our fantasising ideology of what kind of place Paris is and he shows us its true colours, not the bright happy colours but rather the dark and gritty side of France that the world doesn’t see he "Night does not show things, it suggests them. It disturbs and surprises us with its strangeness." Further agreeing with my point behind his idea for his work. Brassai was hoping to document these events for future years to see and understand about the time of year he lived in as well.
The first image has the denotations of love as it’s a man and a woman sharing a kiss this has been seen for many wedding photographers and couples on an international level showing how the image of love has remained the same through decades. This kind of photograph is seen all over romantic websites and films and is always a fond photograph for couples of any age. The second photograph reminds me of Disney’s “Hunchback of Notre Dame” as in the film three gargoyles are shown as guardian angles for Quasimodo, who lives in the bell tower of Notre Dame, each gargoyle showing a caring relationship quality, the mother, the romantic fantasiser and the childish one. In Brassai’s photo he also features three gargoyles watching over Paris. The third photograph sees a lone women standing on her own, this reminds me of dramatic and emotional scenes within films where the women is left heartbroken on her own portrayed in a similar fashion with the use of tone.
Brassaï captured his photographs with fixed lens Voigtländer Bergheil fixed lens folding camera. Brassaï positioned the camera on a strong tripod made from wood. He also snapped photographs with other cameras, such as the Rollieflex for example, he never used a 35mm Leica, saying that he “had no interest in taking dozens of shots of the same scene” like I mentioned earlier.
As Brassai took photographs in the 1930’s we must understand this is a time where colour images were not a reality and so it was black and white photographs that ruled over. Furthermore he had to take his photographs back to a dark room with a red tinted light to dip his photographs into a liquid solution for a certain amount of minutes until he hung it on a line to let it dry as the photograph would then show up.
Brassai has used a range of techniques to create his images from genre and camera control as well as visual elements and competition. He has captured the genre of documentary as he documents every day (night) life and real life events showing realism. There were no digital cameras back in the day so his use of camera control was very limited however his work was a technical achievement. In an age of sluggish lenses and even slower film barely any photographers ventured away from the light and into the darkness. Brassai adored the darkness and by trial and improvement he learned to get the night shots he imagined. He conceived inventive tricks to help him, like gauging extended exposure times by the time it took him to smoke a Gauloises.
Brassai called his photographs his "little boxes of night." Using his techniques from his time as a
painter Brassaï framed his photographs so that small areas of light would blend against large areas of black and shadows. Light reflected in puddles of wet streets and absorbed by fog would define shapes in the darkness. The contrast of the light and darkness of night gave his photographs the depth and meaning in which they create.
Lee Jeffries is another photographer whose dark and gritty photographs capture the hardship of life. His rough photographs are not were near similar in the style that Brassai used showing close up simplification photographs of characters with the lines on their skin and hair the texture of their faces while Brassai took photographs of scenes of streets and the land around him with figures and characters included within his photographs.
Lee Jeffries manages to capture the hardshift of homelessness with the rough and intricate detail he manages to capture with his photographs. The mise-en-scene is clear and always plain this allows for a more meaningful photograph to really emphasis the pain and troubles these people going through. Just like Brassai the photographs capture the destitution and poverty of these people’s lives showing the true story we never listen or take notice in. Brassai did this with his photography. Brassais work is also black and white as he worked with light to contrast the bright white and dark black together, Brassai had no choice as he lived in the 1930’s however Lee Jeffries does a similar thing by choice with his 21st century equipment and techniques continuing to use the black and white contrast for light and dark areas to really capture the define and texture of the people’s faces and emotions.
Bibilography
http://www.atgetphotography.com/The-Photographers/BRASSAI.html
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Brassai
http://www.atgetphotography.com/The-Photographers/BRASSAI.html
http://www.photoquotes.com/ShowQuotes.aspx?id=260&name=Brassai
