Brassaï

"In a world like this one, it's difficult to devote oneself to art body and soul. To get published, to get exhibited, to get produced often requires ten or twenty years of patient, intense labor. I spent half my life at it! And how do you survive during all that time? Beg? Live off other people until you're successful? What a dog's life! I know something about that! You're always recognized too late. And today, it's no longer enough to have talent, originality, to write a good or beautiful book. One must be inspired! Not only touch the public but create one's own public. Otherwise, you're headed straight for suicide.". "That's Henry Miller's advice for young aspiring artists, as remembered by his very good friend Brassai in this lively book. One of two that Brassai wrote about the man who called himself a "happy rock," this volume covers their lives and friendship from the 1950s to the 1970s, a few years before Miller's death. Over the course of a number of warm, intimate conversations, Brassai and Miller revisit their careers; discuss art, literature, Paris, Greece, Japan, World War II, and more; and consider the lives and works of many others in their circle, including Lawrence Durrell, Henri Matisse, Salvador Dali, Georges Simenon, Andre Malraux, Hans Reichel, Paul Klee, and Amedeo Modigliani. Throughout, Miller's zest for life shines through, as do his love of art and his passionate intensity for just about everything he does, from discussing a movie or play he'd just seen to reminiscing about a long-lost love affair." "Brassai's Henry Miller, Happy Rock presents a vivid portrait of two close friends who thoroughly enjoy each other's company - and just happen to be world-famous artists too."--BOOK JACKET.

"Brassai recorded his many meetings and appointments with the great Spanish artist from 1943 to 1946, resulting in Conversations with Picasso."--BOOK JACKET. "While the two artists shared the same milieu in the 1930s, it wasn't until the 1940s that they saw each other on a regular basis, when Brassai was asked to photograph Picasso's works. Brassai's recollection of these visits offer an intimate portrait of one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century: a Picasso who described Cezanne as his "one and only master"; a Picasso who throws a tantrum because he lost a flashlight; a Picasso who remained in Paris during the German Occupation."--BOOK JACKET. "At the same time, it would be a mistake to believe these conversations are only about Picasso. Instead, they treat everyone who comes into his life, the artistic and intellectual debates of the time, and the events of World War II from those in its midst. Paul Eluard, Andre Breton, Man Ray, Jean-Paul Sartre, Henri Matisse - all of these artists and writers, and more, make appearances in these pages."--BOOK JACKET.

"One of the most original and memorable photographers of the twentieth century, Brassai was also a journalist, sculptor, and writer. He took great pride in his writing, and he loved literature and language - French most of all. When he arrived in Paris in 1924, Brassai began teaching himself French by reading Proust. Captured by the sensuality and visual strategies of Proust's writing, Brassai soon became convinced that he had discovered a kindred spirit. Brassai wrote: "In his battle against Time, that enemy of our precarious existence, ever on the offensive though never openly so, it was in photography, also born of an age-old longing to halt the moment, to wrest it from the flux of 'duree' in order to 'fix' it forever in a semblance of eternity, that Proust found his best ally." He quoted Proust in his own writing, and from the annotated books in his library, we know that he spent a lifetime studying and dissecting Proust's prose, often line by line.". "Drawing on his own experience as a photographer and author, Brassai discovers a neglected aspect of Proust's interests, offering us a fascinating study of the role of photography both in Proust's oeuvre and in early-twentieth-century culture."--BOOK JACKET.

Miller didn't just inhabit Paris, he devoured it. Not the Paris of the guidebooks, but the City of Light's lurid backways and backwaters, the dens of vice where he could slough off the pale cast of American puritanism and embrace the hedonistic facts of life. The Parisian life of the "Happy Rock," as Miller liked to call himself, was a turbulent quest for new sensations and avenues, a roisterous, slumming exploration of the soul. This world Miller shared with Brassai, whose work, first collected in Paris by Night, established him as one of the greatest photographers of our century. Miller and Brassai's friendship was a recognition of kindred spirits, born of mutual admiration for each other's tireless, restless fascination with Paris and its inhabitants. . In Miller, Brassai found his most compelling subject. Using unpublished letters, recollected conversations, and references to Miller's work - and featuring sixteen unforgettable examples of Brassai's photography - Henry Miller: The Paris Years is an intimate account of a writer's self-discovery, seen through the unblinking eye of a master photographer. Brassai delves into Miller's relationships with Anais Nin and Lawrence Durrell, as well as his hopelessly tangled though wildly inspiring marriage to June. Brassai remembers Miller's favorite cafes and haunts, revives Miller's idols and anathemas (chief among which, a steady job), and evokes their shared passion for the street life of a Montparnasse and Montmartre captured, even during those depression years, in a dazzling moment of illumination.

One of the most evocative photographic memoirs every published. It was known that Brassai had taken a series of 'secret photographs' which could not be published because of their daring nature--the forbidden Paris, a sordid bas-monde where high society mingled with the underworld.

Brassaï (1899-1984) was a key member of a group of European and North American photographers who, over the course of the 20th century, managed to redefine the identity and enrich the potential of photography as an artistic medium. The main theme of his work was Paris, the subject matter for some of his most significant and renowned images. He captured vibrant images of the daily life of the city, especially the vitality of its night-time atmosphere, in a vivid expression of the powerful artistic dimension of his perspective. The evocative capacity of his images achieved unquestionable recognition that spread from artistic photography circles to the tourist industry and the commercial photography circuit.

"This striking monograph celebrates the beauty of Paris, Brassaï's muse throughout his career. Hungarian-born photographer Brassaï dedicated more than fifty years of his artistic creation to capturing his adoptive city in all its facets. From winsome children playing in the public gardens to an amorous couple on an amusement park attraction, from opera and ballet stars to prostitutes and vagrants, and from cobblestone alleyways to ephemeral graffiti, his photographs embody the very essence of Paris. In an interview shortly before his death in 1984, he explained how Paris had served as an infinite source of inspiration and had reigned as the unifying theme that characterized each phrase of his artistic work"--Amazon.com, viewed April 17, 2014.