Brassaï (1899–1984), fascinated by the city of Paris, extensively explored its less well-known places, intrigued by people and what they did in public at night. Wandering in the rain and fog, his camera exposed the city’s hidden activities, which he recorded using only available light. He preferred high contrast lighting to convey a sense of drama, reducing his compositions to just what the viewer needed to understand the scene. Brassaï’s photographs reveal the city’s underside as he recorded what lay below the surface beauty of Paris.
Born in Transylvania as Gyula Halász, he pursued art study in Budapest and Berlin, moving to Paris in 1924. Through his friendship with fellow Hungarian artist André Kertész, who arrived in Paris the year after Brassaï, he was introduced to the world of photography, and his first pictures date from the late twenties. Deciding to pursue a career as a journalist, he adopted a pseudonym in 1932: Brassaï. As he wandered the streets of Paris late at night, he took pictures that accompanied his articles, publishing in the same journals as writers Henry Miller, Léon-Paul Fargue, and Jacques Prévert. Paris was famous as a city for lovers, but Brassaï revealed its rougher, mercenary side by documenting the hoodlums, prostitutes, transvestites, opium dens, homeless, and cheap music halls that were the underside of this romantic view.
The result was his first book of photographs titled Paris de Nuit, published in 1933. Paris by Night represents a direct exploration of nocturnal groups of Parisians, ones found in the curious byways of the city’s less popular neighborhoods. Some of Brassaï’s pictures are sharply defined and brilliantly lit, while others are dimmer, conveying the character of the shadowy life of the underworld.
The brothel, Chez Suzy, located on the Rue Grégoire-de-Tours, was a lively establishment frequented by working class men, and was typical of the kind of place that caught the attention of Brassaï. The woman who is the subject of the print in the Solari Foundation Collection appears in a long black sleeveless dress, and her accessories are limited to a pearl necklace and a bracelet on her left arm. She rests her right arm on a small shelf, holding a cigarette between her fingers. While her name remains unknown, the artist’s caption lets the viewer know that she was the sous-maîtresse of Chez Suzy. Her title reveals that she was not a prostitute herself, but rather someone who oversaw the clients coming in and out of the building, coordinating which women were assigned to particular customers. Because she held a higher in status in the social hierarchy of the brothel, she did not wear the seductive see-through clothing (or nothing at all) typical of the prostitutes who needed to attract customers.
Brassaï often shot several images of the same person, and the subject of Madame in Front of Mirror appears in a number of his other images in Paris by Night of Chez Suzy. She may be seen in Chez Suzy, Waiting Customers, where she is shown playing cards with two women and one man. They are all clothed, though the prostitutes are not dressed as modestly as Madame. Brassaï captured a moment as the four make small talk while entertaining the client as he makes his choice of the one he prefers. The focus is on the impending transaction: one prostitute wears a loose robe and faces the viewer, while the other is in a backless sleeveless dress tied in a bow. Madame solidly anchors the composition as she studies her hand of cards. That she is dressed in exactly the same attire as Madame in Front of Mirror, suggests that the photographs were taken the same night (though it might be her standard working “uniform”). In another image, a woman prepares herself for a client, her bare back is to the viewer, with the reflection of the mirror revealing only a hand placed on her chin as if in thought. The mirror is the same as in the Solari Foundation Collection photograph. And in both cases, the light above the mirror has been turned on. The room may be a place where the women relax between clients.
When Brassaï photographed at Chez Suzy he used a large format camera whose hefty box did not permit him to take the inconspicuous shots inside that he was able to when working on the street. Brassaï took his time when making his photographs, preferring long exposures. He didn’t like the lamps that were commonly used by photographers to get good contrast as he had discovered that they tended to have chalky white circles in a sea of flat, opaque black (halation). The artist complained that they produced iridescent spots and obliterated halftones. To counter this, he manipulated existing light by using what he photographed to illuminate halos created by streetlights by masking them with walls, trees, or bridges to make the lighting more indirect. His subjects knew that he was photographing them, but his images do not seem overly posed. Most likely, the photographer put them at ease so that they would pay no attention to his camera, distracting them with conversation. Their profession meant that his subjects were used to a range of individuals coming and going at all hours.
As a photographer, Brassaï remains best-known for Paris by Night. That he took many of his brothel images at Chez Suzy suggests that he had come to know the establishment’s sous-maîtresse and that she trusted him. Her relaxed pose and indifferent gaze serve as a reminder as to how common brothels once were in thirties Paris.
Daniel Mariotti
BrassaÏ, La Sous-MaÎtresse de “Chez Suzy,” PARIS, n/p c.1932/1950s, gelatin silver print, 29.2 x 20 cm, SOLARI 91.006.001L