Brassaď |
| PHOTOGRAPHER, JOURNALIST (HUNGARY) |
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BORN 9 Sep 1899, Brassó, Transylvania - DIED 7 Jul 1984, Beaulieu-sur-Mer, Alpes-Maritimes BIRTH NAME Halász, Gyula GRAVE LOCATION Paris: Cimetičre du Montparnasse, 3 Boulevard Edgar Quinet (division 02) |
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Gyula Halász moved with his parents from Hungary to Paris for a year when he was three years old. In Paris his father taught literaturte at the Sorbonne. He grew up in Hungary and studied painting and sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest. During the First World War he served in the Austro-Hungarian army. In 1920 he went to Berlin where he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Charlottenburg and worked as a journalist. To escape the dictatorship of Horthy he left Hungary forever in 1924 and settled in Paris. There he became friends with Henry Miller and Jacques Prévert. He used the name of his birthplace when he started to work as a photographer. In 1933 his first book with photographs "Paris de nuit" ("Paris by Night") was published. He took many pictures of famous artists and writers and he exhibited in New York, Chicago and other cities. In 1949 he became a French citizen. In 1956 his movie "Tant qu'il y aura des bętes" won a prize at Cannes. In 1976 he received the Légion d'honneur. In 1961 he stopped working as a photographer and became a sculptor. In 2000 a huge exhibition of his work was held at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. The organisation was assisted by his widow Gilberte who also worked as a photographer and died in 2005. Related persons • photographed Beckett, Samuel • photographed Matisse, Henri |
| Images |
 The grave of Brassai at the Montparnasse cemetery, Paris. Picture by Androom (27 Aug 2001) |
Sources • Beyern, Bertrand, Guide des Cimetičres en France, Le Cherche Midi Éditeur, Paris, 1994 |
