Northern Comfort
Brassai and Andre Kertesz: Light and Dark streets.
Gyula Halasz or George Brassai is a Hungarian photographer who was born in Transylvania in 1899. He started off as a journalist during the 1920s and was not interested in photography until he saw the work of Andre Kertesz, which inspired him to take the photography career path.
Brassai started off taking photographs of Paris at night, most of the photographs featuring street lights, buildings, trees and people. They were captured in black and white, with silhouetted objects in the foreground. The way he captures the photos enhances the light and makes features such as car lights and street lamps stand out from the background. The pictures are lit very beautifully and illuminate various textures from the light shining on the pavement emphasizing the shape of the cobbles. This gives the photo depth and allows us to see more than just every day scenery, allowing you to observe it in a different way. The perspective of Brassai’s photos are usually looking up or towards pathways or streets in Paris. You can see that Brassai uses the 'Rule of Thirds' in his photographs which brings balance and serenity to them which really contrasts my idea behind the image. This is because Brassai took photos that are more in depth of Paris, showing the secretive, more 'harsh' side of street life, featuring people that emerge at night like Prostitutes, transvestites and other things people of the 1930's would have found vulgar which helps capture the ‘real’ city creating a more atmospheric photograph. I think that his photographs are showing that even the most beautiful of cities, like Paris and London can have more sinister elements. His photographs remind me of noir films, mainly due to the black and white street views creating a mysterious and eerie, crime-like atmosphere. Brassai also does quite candid photographs of people in bars and at dances, which really helps bring the photos to life. They show raw emotion and help me visualise what the 1930's were like. This goes with the quote ‘’Brassai is a living eye… his gaze pierces straight to the heart of truths in everything’’ which a fan of him used to describe the ‘night-owl’ photographer.
Andre Kertesz was a photographer who created journalistic photographs. He is well known for his unorthodox camera angles that helped capture life and objects in his photos. Kertesz also did street photography most of which Brassai based his whole career off of. Andre Kertesz’s street photographs are much more luminous and full of life, with abstract camera angles that helps create a more surreal view of different scenery whereas Brassai does this by using the dark and the devious parts of street life. Brassai’s is more mysterious and spooky due to the silhouettes and the attention to dark details of the street while Kertesz’s photos are more dynamic and high-spirited, drawing me in to the photograph by capturing vivid and outstanding light and detail. The people who featured in his photographs were usually moving and getting on with their day-to-day lives and were mainly ordinary women, men and children, helping me see behind what I know about the 1920s and taking note of the unimportant details, making the photograph more candid and unexpected just like Brassai did with more crude types of people who emerge at night. Both of the photographers portray street life in a very genuine way, uncovering what we see today as 1920s to 30s lifestyles and showing us the more natural and authentic night and day life.
I really like Brassai’s work simply because he really captures the city and the realism of Paris in the 1930s and gives me the opportunity to really sink into the photos and almost experience the authentic Paris nightlife he had captured. They are definitely beautiful photographs holding a lot of detail and depth. It really focuses on capturing the nightlife atmosphere, surrounding the light and dark. This also allowed me to experiment in Brassai's style during the day and night, following the way light can effect the atmosphere of a photograph and showing the correlation between light levels, the time of day and the overall outcome of the mood in my photos.
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Brassai used nothing but a simple small plate camera, a tripod and a flashbulb. When Brassai had the camera positioned and the shot ready, he took the photo and depending on if the lighting was correct or not, took the photographs to be developed. He used a method of trial and error, prolonging exposure times and changing positions in the street. His technique is effective because all of his photos came out really bright and sharp, showing that even photographers with ‘low quality’ equipment in the 1930s could create beautiful, lively and mysterious photographs.
Brassai’s photos usually included quite dark and mysterious elements. They made you want to explore the meaning behind the narrative photographic features and see what the artist was seeing. A lot of his art made you feel quite calm and safe because he used perspective and drew the viewer in by making some of the photographs darker around the corners and sides creating a barrier or a vignette which really enclosed the street and made it feel much smaller and safer than it would have been in real life. In real life it would have been open and scary with a view of the street that we wouldn't see in the daylight. The black and white of the photograph makes it peaceful and orderly because it’s simple, contrasts shadows and doesn’t complicate the area with multi-coloured backgrounds. It helps the lights and the silhouetted trees or people stand out and accentuates the subject, whether it is in the middle, at the side or in the background.
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Brassai also looks at the way light changes the atmosphere surrounding the face focussing on the dark unlike Andre Kertesz who focuses on light but in the exact same methods and direction.
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I did the same technique as the last for this, this created a more vivid and beautiful view of the city through the bright and vibrant lights and vast amount of neon colours. It contrasts the negative view of the danger we could be in in the dark and allows me to provide evidence for light being a large source of comfort and the best way to manipulate the atmosphere of my photographs.
I did the same technique as the last for this, this created a more vivid and beautiful view of the city through the bright and vibrant lights and vast amount of neon colours. It contrasts the negative view of the danger we could be in in the dark and allows me to provide evidence for light being a large source of comfort and the best way to manipulate the atmosphere of my photographs.
I digitally edited this photograph to remove any light blemishes and to make the artificial light more vivid and colourful to exaggerate the use of colour and how it makes the city a lot more lively and awake and creates a welcoming atmosphere.
First I turned down the brightness and contrast to make the lights stand out more but the darkness appear a lot more dark to ensure a contrast was still visible. This effectively made the lights stand out a lot more.
I then used the colour balance to make the colours more unnatural and brighter, this effectively made the lights stand out with lively blues and warm yellows that protected the people from the darkness.
I digitally edited this photograph to remove any light blemishes and to make the artificial light more vivid and colourful to exaggerate the use of colour and how it makes the city a lot more lively and awake and creates a welcoming atmosphere.
For this I made the artificial lights a lot more vivid and colourful to allow the atmosphere to be more lively and exciting. It creates a more welcoming view of the city through the way the lit up safer areas look more warm and secure in contrast to the dark and frightening areas.
First I turned up the vibrance which made the colours a lot warmer, helping it stand out and give us a sense of welcoming and security.
I then turned down the brightness and turned up the contrast to also create a thicker difference between the safe light and the sinister darkness which created a more lively and welcoming atmosphere.
For this I made the artificial lights a lot more vivid and colourful to allow the atmosphere to be more lively and exciting. It creates a more welcoming view of the city through the way the lit up safer areas look more warm and secure in contrast to the dark and frightening areas.
To imply that light provides a welcoming area of safety I decided to brighten up and artificial sources and amplify the use of unnatural colours which also adds to the lively atmosphere of the city.
First I edited the levels of the photo to add a little more contrast to the darker areas of the photograph and really get a thick difference between the security of the lit up buildings and the shadowy areas.
This is the stage that allowed me to make the lights more vibrant and eyecatching to imply that sense of welcoming.
To imply that light provides a welcoming area of safety I decided to brighten up and artificial sources and amplify the use of unnatural colours which also adds to the lively atmosphere of the city.