Press Photo

Paris Decorative Art Exhibition and Russian Pavilion, 1925, B and W Photography

1925

A unique original silver gelatin black and white photograph by Press Agency, Paris 1925. International Decorative Arts Exhibition in Paris, 1925, a view from the River Seine. Feature...

An exceptional original silver gelatin black-and-white photograph from Press Agency, Paris, 1925, capturing a striking view of the International Decorative Arts Exhibition in October...

A unique original silver gelatin black and white photograph. On the 12th of April, 1927, the iconic "Foire au Jambon" (Ham Fair) was a well-known outdoor antique...

A unique original silver gelatin black and white photograph by Press Agency, Paris in 1925. International Decorative Arts Exhibition in Paris, 1925, French newspaper pavilion. L'Intr...

View Of Rome is a vintage black and white photograph realized in the early 20th Century. With the hand-note in pencil on the rear. Good conditions. A historical testimonial of the...

Landscape in Northern Africa is a series of 8 original Vintage b/w Photographs realized by an anonymous artist in the Early 20th Century. Good conditions except for being aged. The...

BRASSAI (Hungarian–French, 1899-1984) Street Fair on the Place d'Italie, 1931 Medium: Sheet-fed Gravure Printing Date: 1970's Printed in the USA Image: 10 1/2 x 8 inches Framed: 14 1/2 x 12 inches Although his real nameis Gyula Halasz, he took the name Brassai from his birthplace, and it means someone who comes from Brasov. He used the name all his adult life and is known throughout the world as Brassai. He was of Hungarian ethnic origins. Brasov in Transylvania has been a part of Romania since the end of the First World War, and that region is still largely populated by ‘Romanain-Hungarians.’ Two of these became well known in the film industry: Bela Lugosi and Gabriel Pascal. When the Austro-Hungarian Empire was dismantled after the War, most of its territories were distributed amongst a number of nations. It was at this time that Transylvania returned to its earlier identity as part of Romania. Brassai had served in the Austro-Hungarian cavalry for the last year of the War, 1917-1918. After he settled in Paris in 1924, Brassai never returned to his homeland, remaining in exile for the rest of his life. His parents continued to live in Brasov but joined him for long visits in Paris. In 1949 Brassai became a French citizen, having been a stateless person since 1947. He fell in love with a French woman, Gilberte Boyer, and they married in 1948. Gilberte worked closely with her husband as he pursued his photographic career, helping him develop prints in his dark-room, and often writing descriptions of the subjects and personalities. It was also in 1949 that a book with 207 photographs of Picasso’s sculptures was published, with photographs by Brassai. He and Picasso became friends and the latter asked him to photograph his work for this volume. Brassai was a frequent visitor to Picasso’s studio and there he took several portraits of the artist. Brassai has become one of the leading photographers of the twentieth century with collectors all over the world seeking his work. In an era which produced several brilliant and inspired photographers, not least Brassai’s friend Man Ray, he was able to capture a quality of magic in the atmosphere, bordering on the supernatural. Many of his pictures were taken at night or in fog, a frequent condition in Paris in the early part of the twentieth century. Even his day time photographs capture a moment of eerie transition between the mundane and the surreal. He is on the doorstep of another world where time stands still. Light becomes spectral as if it is the breath of an invisible power. Figures seem set in amber. Wet cobbles seem to slither and flow. A Master of capturing the ordinary, Brassai saw things as they were but transmuted the scene through his use of the lens into something outside the ordinary. Brassai was a familiar figure prowling round Paris after dark with his camera and tripod and heavy bag of glass photographic plates. He was sometimes accompanied by Ernest Hemingway, Henry Miller, or Leon Paul...

Street Of Rome is a vintage black and white photograph realized in the early 20th Century as reprint of an image of the late 19th century. With the hand-note in pencil on the rear....