Brassaï (Gyula Halász)
[Photographer, b. 1889, Brassó, Transylvania, Hungary (now Romania), d. 1984, Eze, Alpes-Maritimes, France.]
In the absence of a subject with which you are passionately involved, and without the excitement that drives you to grasp it and exhaust it, you may take some beautiful pictures, but not a photographic oeuvre.
There is always the danger of prostituting one’s gifts simply in order to live and to survive. The most difficult thing in life is to make money doing what you like to do.
Surreality lies within ourselves, in objects that have become banal because we no longer see them, in the
normality of the normal.
To shut oneself away in photography: what estrangement, what reclusion, what discipline!... [Photography] demands a purification without which no object lets us into its heart of hearts. Thus does one turn into a photosensitive coating.
Only vividly perceived pictures can penetrate deeply into the memory, remain there, become unforgettable. For me this is the only criterion for a beautiful photograph.
The ‘Surrealism’ of my images was just reality itself, but made Fantastic through vision.
My ambition was always to show aspects of daily life as if we were seeing them for the first time.
I don’t like snapshots. I like to seize hold of things, and the form is very important for this... . Only through form can the image enter into our memory. It’s like the aerodynamics of a car, don’t you see? For me, form is the only criterion of a good photograph. One doesn’t forget such a photograph and one wants to see it again.
