“Brassai’s reputation, spread by his classic picture essays, Paris la Nuit (Paris at Night) and The Secret Paris of the ’30s, centers on his compelling images that chronicled degraded nudity, physical and moral, in bars and brothels.”

“But a broader, more self-conscious artist is emerging from current research. Not just a photographer with voyeuristic tendencies, Brassai was as methodical (and as subjective) as any painter… He sought the instant when a person’s tired traits composed an inner reality. Patiently, he would wait on a corner for car headlights to wash the cobblestones with nighttime chiaroscuro.”

– Brassai-Picasso:40 Years of Dialogue by Joseph Fitchett