The photographer of nocturnal Paris — Miller crowned him 'the eye of Paris,' and half a century later he wrote the book on their friendship.
Gyula Halász took his name from his Transylvanian hometown and made the night city his subject: Paris de nuit (1932) fixed the fog, the cobbles, the brothels, and the bals musette in images that still define the era. He prowled the same 1930s Montparnasse as Henry Miller, who anointed him 'the eye of Paris' in a 1938 essay, reprinted in The Wisdom of the Heart; Brassaï returned the portrait fifty years on with Henry Miller: The Paris Years, the tenderest account of the Tropic of Cancer world by someone who photographed it as it happened.
How Brassaï appears in its pages: Subject of 'The Eye of Paris' — Miller's essay on the photographer of the night city, argued through particulars: a municipal park chair, a chicken plucked at midnight behind a lit window in Levallois-Perret, the prints spread across the bed of Brassaï's hotel room.
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Met
Fellow members of the Villa Seurat orbit in the thirties — Brassaï's memoir of the Miller circle records Nin among its cast, from the Louveciennes salon to the quarter's cafés.
Met · 1930
Fellow prowlers of nocturnal Paris in the early thirties — Miller crowned him 'the eye of Paris' in an essay, and half a century later Brassaï wrote the book on their friendship.
Collaborated with
Brassaï photographed Gala. He later described her combined roles as Dalí's inspiration, teacher, muse and businesswoman.
Met
Fellow members of the Villa Seurat orbit in the thirties — Brassaï's memoir of the Miller circle records Nin among its cast, from the Louveciennes salon to the quarter's cafés.
Met · 1930
Fellow prowlers of nocturnal Paris in the early thirties — Miller crowned him 'the eye of Paris' in an essay, and half a century later Brassaï wrote the book on their friendship.
Collaborated with
Brassaï photographed Gala. He later described her combined roles as Dalí's inspiration, teacher, muse and businesswoman.