Author Topic: Been to an exhibition: "Brassaï: Paris la nuit" (Read 6504 times)

madelaide · « **on:** January 08, 2012, 13:30 »

I went to a photo exhibition yesterday, with some fantastic images by Hungarian photographer Gyula Halász, whose pseudonym was Brassaï. He was born in what is today Romania and went to Paris in the 20s, when he was 25. He worked as a journalist and had a passion of photographing Paris at night - its streets, cafes, cabarets and brothels. The exhibition I saw was exactly about this period and has some awesome night shots of the city (I'm not much into the brothel images, I find this kind of photography, as well as shooting homeless, drug addicts and people with mental problems very disturbing).

I didn't know about him before this exhibition started, and maybe you don't either, so here is a link to some of his work, and attatched is a photo of one of my faves in that exhibition:
http://www.atgetphotography.com/The-Photographers/BRASSAI.html

BaldricksTrousers · « **Reply #1 on:** January 08, 2012, 13:54 »

There's tremendous inspiration to be had from these old masters of B&W, is't there? And I don't mean "inspiration" a la microstock, I mean from seeing the way they balance light and dark, and the different elements that go into capturing a moment.

I think a good B&W shot can be infinitely more powerful than a colour image, and it is no good shooting colour and then desaturating because you need to be thinking in tonality and contrast when you are shooting, and that's not the way you approach colour.

This is one of my more recent attempts (shot with Fomapan 200 in a Leica R4s, developed in Fomadon P)

It's not up there with Brassai, of course, but hopefully it shows that there is still a place for B&W film.

rubyroo · « **Reply #2 on:** January 08, 2012, 16:46 »

Lovely shot BT. Great face, and very natural. I've never tried it, but I imagine you could get somewhere with a desaturated image if you have good knowledge of light & shade and can expertly dodge and burn. I might give that a go some time... I know light and shade very well, but haven't used dodge and burn much in post-production work.

Thanks Madelaide for the Brassai link. Some lovely shots there. Does anyone know who all those people are in the group shot with Picasso?

This was my favourite. I love the light in this shot, and the way the buildings behind look like a backdrop on a film set. Also the way the texture of the corduroy coat really stands out in black & white.

http://www.atgetphotography.com/Images/Photos/BRASSAI/brassai28.jpg

BaldricksTrousers · « **Reply #3 on:** January 09, 2012, 00:33 »

I did a comparison between a digital shot processed through Nik's Colour Efex Pro, which is pretty much industry standard for the creation of digital art B&W and the same shot taken at the same time on medium format film. It was a vast landscape with a tiny white church providing sharp contrast in the distance. Whatever I did, I simply could not create the same contrast between the church and the field next to it in the digital image as there was in the B&W, so I concluded that however much we may think that desaturation or B&W filters can replicate film, the reality is that they don't, they create their own look.

In other words, film does not record luminosity in the same way as a digital sensor.

lagereek · « **Reply #4 on:** January 09, 2012, 01:37 »

Are you kidding! he is one of the greats!

BaldricksTrousers · « **Reply #5 on:** January 09, 2012, 02:49 »

That's a great website with lots of interesting stuff on it. It also makes you wonder what it takes to make a reputation. August Sander, for example, a professional photographer who lived to be almost 90 has apparently got only about 200 published photos to his credit (and, no doubt, thousands of private portraits that nobody knows about).

What does it take to be "one of the greats"?

rubyroo · « **Reply #6 on:** January 09, 2012, 03:00 »

Fair enough BT, if you've already done the experiments (I haven't), I'll certainly take your word for it.

Do you know Salgado's work, BT? I imagine you'd love it:

http://masters-of-photography.com/S/salgado/salgado_covers_full.html

Surely 'one of the greats' by anyone's standards.

lagereek · « **Reply #7 on:** January 09, 2012, 03:20 »

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on January 09, 2012, 02:49

That's a great website with lots of interesting stuff on it. It also makes you wonder what it takes to make a reputation. August Sander, for example, a professional photographer who lived to be almost 90 has apparently got only about 200 published photos to his credit (and, no doubt, thousands of private portraits that nobody knows about).

What does it take to be "one of the greats"?

Dont know? I will probably get flamed for this but I think people like Brassai, Bresson, you know photographers in that genre, they were more like innovators, etc, creeping around the backstreets of Paris, following the cubism, painters like Braque, Piccasso, etc and today ofcourse, every photograph is labelled "art", dont know if I agree on that one?

rubyroo · « **Reply #8 on:** January 09, 2012, 03:59 »

Some amazing Salgado images here, at his own agency. Some of them just took my breath away. What an eye he has!

http://www.amazonasimages.com/grands-travaux?PHPSESSID=f688b9bd3fecc477334ce8efca8edaed

BaldricksTrousers · « **Reply #9 on:** January 09, 2012, 05:49 »

I saw Salgado's Africa exhibition about a year ago. The photos were fabulous, blown up four feet tall. The quality of printing was outstanding, too (and the printer matters almost as much as the photographer in a show like that), which makes it all the more surprising that on that Salgado website the scanning of negatives is decidedly second-rate ... check out the Dinka folder to see what I mean. Most of his stuff on the site is from his more recent digital phase. He tries to mimic Tri-X but, like I said, I couldn't achieve that because film seems to read the luminosity differently from digital but you don't know that until you put them side by side.

rubyroo · « **Reply #10 on:** January 09, 2012, 06:16 »

I hadn't looked at the Dinka folder (so much to see, I thought I'd come back and explore in stages). I see a lot less contrast in some of those - is that what you're referring to? (I've never scanned a negative, so I won't pretend to know about something when I don't).

I think his eye is amazing though. I was quite preoccupied with shots of Patagonia and also "the upper xingu indians" folder - the second shot there I found particularly beautiful.

BaldricksTrousers · « **Reply #11 on:** January 09, 2012, 06:28 »

Yes, they haven't controlled the contrast properly. I saw prints of some of those and they are a punchy as anything, much better than the look on the website.

I agree entirely about his vision. It was seeing his work that persuaded me to put more effort into B&W as part of my attempts to develop some artistic skills.

rubyroo · « **Reply #12 on:** January 09, 2012, 06:54 »

Aha! That must be why, when I saw his work, I thought of you and posted it. Something of the choice you made in the way you captured that man connected in my mind when I looked at the first Salgado link I posted. I wish you so well on your B&W inspiration and exploration.

I envy you for seeing his work exhibited. I will definitely try to catch a future exhibition. Brassai too!

BaldricksTrousers · « **Reply #13 on:** January 09, 2012, 07:47 »

Well, thanks. I won't get a better compliment than that for a long time to come

rubyroo · « **Reply #14 on:** January 09, 2012, 11:25 »

madelaide · « **Reply #15 on:** January 09, 2012, 17:46 »

B&W is great for portraits, it catches more the expression, I think.

Salgado is great, he captures the essence of each scene he shoots.

And he is Brazilian, you know.

rubyroo · « **Reply #16 on:** January 09, 2012, 17:52 »

Ah well now I don't feel so guilty about hijacking your thread with Salgado

Congratulations Brazil

BaldricksTrousers · « **Reply #17 on:** January 10, 2012, 06:54 »

Salgado is, in my opinion, the greatest photographer of the late 20th century. He kicks icons like Cartier Bresson and Ansel Adams into touch. In addition to his brilliance at composition and the use of light and dark (have you seen how often key subject in his shots is also the point of maximum contrast?) he brings tremendous compassion to his work. In many of his best shots it is his empathy with his subjects that shines through.

If anyone can point to a portfolio that is equal to his, I would love to see it (I'm not terribly well-educated about photographers, so there might be others of equal stature that 've not come across).

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Author Topic: Been to an exhibition: "Brassaï: Paris la nuit" (Read 6504 times)

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