Brassaï (Gyula Halász)

ferrotyped, two of the photographer's '81, Rue du Faub. St. Jacques, Paris-XIV Port-Royal 23-41' studio stamps, titled and dated in pencil, and with annotations 'Bordel' in red ink and ''Miroir' and 'ref PL382' in pencil, on the reverse, circa 1932

The photographer to Mme. Gilberte Brassaï, Paris

Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York, 2001

Alain Sayag and Annick Lionel-Marie, eds., Brassaï: The Monograph (Boston, 2000), p. 77

This early ferrotyped print is on medium-weight paper that is trimmed to the image. The surface is less glossy than Brassaï's ferrotyped prints usually are; however, the surface exhibits characteristics that are typical of ferrotyping: unevenness in the glossiness of the surface, particularly in the upper right quadrant; a fingerprint; and faint, thin lines in the surface that do not break the emulsion. These are visible under close examination in raking light and are not particularly apparent under normal viewing conditions. The edges of the print are rubbed, and the lower right corner is creased, with tiny losses of emulsion. When examined with ultraviolet light, this print does not appear to fluoresce.
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This early print by Brassaï, originally in the collection of the photographer’s widow, is characteristic of his 1930s work, when his subjects were the people and places of Montparnasse and Montmartre at night.  Photographing brothels in Paris was illegal, but Brassaï made his entry as the friend of one of Suzy’s clientele. 

Author Henry Miller, who often joined Brassaï in his nighttime meanderings, wrote in his introduction to the photographer’s 1949 book, Histoire de Marie,

‘One of Brassaï’s gifts is that of being on easy, friendly terms with everyone.  There is no activity nor profession with which he is not familiar, not a district of Paris that he has not explored intimately, not a subject of which he has not some knowledge.  He knows brothels, the slaughter-houses, the hospitals, the lunatic asylums, the billiard halls, the waterside, the studios, the salons.  He is at home in all classes of society and at his happiest on the street.’