La rue Quincampoix

Brassaï

1933 · Gelatin silver print · Photographs

Brassaï made his name as a chronicler of the night. His book Paris de nuit (Paris by Night) of 1933 surveys the city after dark. While it includes photographs of prostitutes and thugs, it treats the seamy side demurely. Brassaï editorialized his title of this view down a narrow street to inform his viewers that these hotels were actually brothels. He wrote about the matter in The Secret Paris of the 30s (1976): “Like streetwalkers, they [the bordellos] were shrouded in mystery. Their eternally closed shutters, their red lights, their huge numbers lit up late into the night, set them apart from the neighboring bourgeois houses. . . . There were many names for them, but they all meant brothel: maison close, maison de tolérance, maison publique, maison d’illusions, or simply maison.”

Artist

Brassaï

Date

1933

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Gilman Collection, Purchase, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Gift, 2005