Brassai

Brassaï (Gyula Halász)
Self-photoportrait of Brassaï
Born	Gyula Halász (1899-09-09)9 September 1899 Brassó, Transylvania, Austria-Hungary (now Romania)
Died	8 July 1984(1984-07-08) (aged 84) Beaulieu-sur-Mer, France
Nationality	Hungarian/French
Alma mater	Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts
Occupation	Photographer
Spouse(s)	Gilberte Brassai

Brassaï (French: [bʁasaj]; pseudonym of Gyula Halász; 9 September 1899 – 8 July 1984) was a Hungarian–French photographer, sculptor, writer, and filmmaker who rose to international fame in France in the 20th century. He was one of the numerous Hungarian artists who flourished in Paris beginning between the World Wars. In the early 21st century, the discovery of more than 200 letters and hundreds of drawings and other items from the period 1940–1984 has provided scholars with material for understanding his later life and career.

Gyula (Julius) Halász Brassaï (pseudonym) was born at 9 September 1899 in Brassó, Kingdom of Hungary (today Brașov, Romania) to an Armenian mother and a Hungarian father. He grew up speaking Hungarian and Romanian. When he was three, his family lived in Paris for a year, while his father, a professor of French literature, taught at the Sorbonne.

As a young man, Gyula Halász studied painting and sculpture at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts (Magyar Képzőművészeti Egyetem) in Budapest. He joined a cavalry regiment of the Austro-Hungarian army, where he served until the end of the First World War.

He cited Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec as an artistic influence.

In 1920, Halász went to Berlin, where he worked as a journalist for the Hungarian papers Keleti and Napkelet. He started studies at the Berlin-Charlottenburg Academy of Fine Arts (Hochschule für Bildende Künste), now Universität der Künste Berlin. There he became friends with several older Hungarian artists and writers, including the painters Lajos Tihanyi and Bertalan Pór, and the writer György Bölöni, each of whom later moved to Paris and became part of the Hungarian circle.