The Secret Paris of the '30s

by Brassaï

Book Overview

This volume contains many photographs taken by Brassai which have never had wide circulation before because of their daring nature. His subject is the forbidden Paris of the 1930s, its opium dens, its... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0500271089
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 1.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.8" x 0.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

A Chronicle of Lost Freedom and Degradation

Though the photographs--all of them black-and-white, and many full-page in size--are the "star" of this book, it is well worth reading the modest amount of text. In it, the author/photographer explains his intention, the kinds of responses he received, and describes his forays into a wide range of venues and activities found only in the nocturnal Paris of this time. He knocks on a door in a dilapidated walk-up...and upon being allowed admission, finds two quiet persons dressed in night gowns. He is readily granted permission to photograph the city through this silent couple's windows. "I am just glad I still have something I can give someone." It turns out they are blind, living out their remaining time together. The author hurries out, himself blinded...by tears. It is vignettes like this that add a good deal to this book, which never panders to mere sensationalism. The clubs catering to "inverts," venues where gangsters hang out, the nightly toil of the cesspool drainers...and the elaborate, orgiastic parties and festivals that sometimes spilled out onto the streets of the city, are among some of the pieces of this darkened kaleidoscope. If you have an interest for a visual chronicle of a time and sensibility gone forever, you will likely find this book of interest. The photographs are interesting of themselves...but as I said, you will get much more from this book if you read the text, as well.

The More Things Change The More They Remain The Same

This was the second time I'd enjoyed this groundbreaking book-length photo essay by one of the pioneer French photojournalists. I'd first seen many of the very famous historic pictures when I was a student working on my BFA in the mid-1960's. I came across the book itself in the early 1970's but I don't think I read the text at the time because I seem to recall it was in French. Having just finished actually reading this 1976 English translation I purchased, I'm even more impressed than I was long ago when I examined an earlier foreign version. Not only have the pictures themselves remained some of the best photographs of the era, but also they are still fresh and as relevant as they were at the time. The author-photographer liked to stroll through the dark alleys and byways of Paris with the likes of Man Ray, KiKi and Henry Miller among others. What impressed me most about this book at this time in my own life is that the photographer was either very, very brave or had a "death wish." Taking the pictures in this book was a very dangerous undertaking. The major players in the pictures included drug dealers, thugs, prostitutes and other unsavory characters of the shadowy Paris underbelly. Brassai was lucky not to have been robbed of more than his money and film holders during his continuing documentation of the Paris underworld. Simply being out in some of the dangerous streets where he set up his camera and tripod was taking his life in his hands. Obviously, photographing known criminals in their element made him and his valuable camera equipment a really tempting target for a mugging. Since the local criminals also hated "stool pigeons" or police informers, he was a convenient target of their fear of betrayal. Having a crime magazine editor add a caption to one of his gangster portraits that said "This murderer who..." brought that murderer crashing through Brassai's bedroom door in the middle of the night mad as Hell and brandishing his switchblade and yelling "So I'm a murder, am I...Then I'm going to kill you!" Fortunately, he settled for just robbing him of all his money. This was the 1930's and Brassai was taking a bulky camera, tripod and the necessary flash equipment into Opium Dens for the wealthy and famous, illegal gambling dens, brothels, houses of illusion, the hidden club world of gay men and women, and dangerous bars where the crooks, pimps and thugs relaxed and conducted business or took revenge on (rubbed out) their competitors. There was no way he could hide the fact he was taking pictures--especially when his flash lit up the entire scene. He was a brave photographer who risked his life to show the insides of the officially unacknowledged flesh-peddling world of Paris life. Even though the pictures in the book are all from the 1930's and sometimes have a dated and quaint look to them, something else becomes obvious to every viewer and reader of the pictures. It's obvious that nothing much has really changed since those le

Views of Paris nightlife in the early 1930's

Divided into 19 sections, each including a short essay on one subject (ex.: The Street Fair) with accompanying illustrations. Photographs include full-page printed to the edge of the paper (unfortunately also to the spine of the book), full-page with border, half and quarter page. Copyrights on most of the the photographs, listed in an appendix, range from 1931-33, a few are 1934.Most of the 150 photographs are very good duotone reproductions, a few are less than great. My copy is a softcover, publ. by Thames & Hudson, 2001, labeled Printed in Italy on the back cover.The subjects range from public toilets and their various uses, through petty underworld figures, gay nightclubs, prostitutes and brothels, bums, to backstage at the Folie-Bergere and an upper-class opium den. One interesting section deals with the annual "Balls" (read orgies) organized by the Schools of Medicine and the Arts on the Left Bank for their students. All get a sympathetic and nonjudgemental treatment. Overall an fascinating, but fragmented glimpse of Paris night life in the early 30's.

An amazing snapshot of a time long forgotten...

The photographs and stories in this book are truly remarkable. The underground world Brassai allows the reader to navigate is one that will leave a mark on your heart and tear at your soul. From lonely streetwalkers to the many faces of Parisian nightclubs, this amazing photographic journey gives a modern audience a true glimpse of what life was like in the 30s.

If you don't have it - get it.

Don't let the title put you off, there is very little in this book that would shock a modern audience. Times certainly ain't what they used to be. Brassai's photos and writings of a time now long gone however will slowly infuse in you a strange and somewhat uncomfortable nostalgia for a time long before you were born and places you wouldn't visit had you been born. Removed so far in time, it's all very safe - perhaps.