AT A GLANCE
- Known for
- Poetic street scenes, unusual angles and quiet interiors, such as Chez Mondrian (1926); the Distortions series (1933)
- Worked in
- Black and white; color Polaroids late in life
- Camera
- An ICA box camera at first; a Leica from 1928; a Polaroid SX-70 from 1979
- Also
- First solo show in Paris in 1927; MoMA solo show in 1964; Guggenheim Fellowship, 1974
- Start with
- On Reading (Grossman Publishers, 1971)
André Kertész (1894–1985) was a Hungarian-born photographer who worked in Budapest, Paris and New York. In Paris in the late 1920s he made street scenes, night views and studio interiors that influenced photographers such as Brassaï and Henri Cartier-Bresson. After years of commercial work in New York, a 1964 solo show at the Museum of Modern Art brought his work back to a wide public.
The story
In 1926 André Kertész visited the Paris studio of the painter Piet Mondrian. He came back several times that year. Mondrian painted only straight lines and flat colors, and his rooms were just as ordered. “I went to his studio and instinctively tried to capture in my photographs the spirit of his paintings. He simplified, simplified, simplified,” Kertész later recalled. One small thing caught his eye. “He had a vase with a flower, but the flower was artificial. It was colored by him with the right color to match the studio.” So he looked from inside the studio out to the hallway. In that strict space he found curves: the staircase, the vase, a round hat on the wall.
Kertész had no training. Born in Budapest in 1894, he worked as a clerk at the stock exchange and bought his first camera, a simple box camera, in 1912. In the First World War he photographed life in the trenches with a light Goerz Tenax. A bullet wounded him in 1915. On 19 July 1921, in the small town of Abony, he photographed a blind street musician with his violin.
In September 1925 he moved to Paris. He spoke little French, but within a year and a half he was selling pictures to magazines. In 1927 the gallery Au Sacre du Printemps showed 30 of his photographs. A poet at the opening called him “Brother Seeing Eye.” From 1928 he worked with a Leica and was a lead photographer for the new magazine Vu.
In 1936 he and his wife Elizabeth moved to New York. For years he photographed homes for House and Garden. He called his time in New York “an absolute tragedy” and the magazine work “slave work.” Still, from 1952 he photographed Washington Square from his apartment window, often with a telephoto lens. In 1962 he left the magazine, and in 1964, at 70, he had a solo show at the Museum of Modern Art.
Elizabeth died in 1977. Two years later Polaroid gave him an SX-70 camera. At his window he made small color pictures of a glass bust that reminded him of her. Mondrian had simplified the world. Kertész, in his eighties, still found it full. “I am a lucky man,” he said. “I can do something with almost anything I see. Everything is still interesting to me.”
The work
- 1894Born Andor Kertész in Budapest, 2 July
- 1912Buys his first camera while working at the stock exchange
- 1915Wounded in the First World War
- 1925Moves to Paris
- 1927First solo exhibition, at Au Sacre du Printemps, Paris
- 1933Makes the Distortions series; marries Elizabeth
- 1936Moves to New York
- 1964Solo show at the Museum of Modern Art, New York
- 1985Dies in New York, 28 September
Lessons
Look for the one thing that breaks the pattern. In Mondrian’s strict studio he found the curves of a staircase, a vase and a hat.
Use what is close. For years he photographed Washington Square from his own window, sometimes with a telephoto lens.
Stay a beginner. He called himself an amateur all his life, even after decades of magazine work.
Try this: choose one window in your home and photograph the view from it for a week, at different times of day. Then photograph one small object on the windowsill in the same light. Look for one curve or shape that does not fit the rest.
Gear
Box camera: his first camera, an ICA box camera, bought in Budapest in 1912.
Folding plate camera: in the First World War he used a light Goerz Tenax at the front. He worked with plate cameras until 1928.
35mm rangefinder camera: he switched to a Leica in 1928, in Paris. In New York he also used a telephoto lens for his views of Washington Square.
Instant camera: Polaroid gave him an SX-70 in 1979. He used it into the 1980s for small color still lifes at his window.
Books
On Reading (Grossman Publishers, New York, 1971; reissued by W. W. Norton, 2008). A small book of photographs taken between 1920 and 1970, all of people reading: on rooftops, in parks, on busy streets, in many parts of the world. It became one of his best-known works. The Norton reissue has 71 pages and is easy to find. A good first book, and a gentle lesson in patience and in seeing people when they forget the camera.
André Kertész: Sixty Years of Photography, 1912–1972 (Grossman Publishers, New York, 1972). A large survey of about 250 photographs, made while Kertész was alive and still working. It runs from his early pictures in Hungary through Paris to New York. A classic overview for readers who want to follow one long working life in pictures.
André Kertész (Princeton University Press, 2005). The catalogue of the National Gallery of Art retrospective in Washington, by Sarah Greenough, Robert Gurbo and Sarah Kennel. It covers his whole career, from Budapest to Paris and New York, with detailed texts. A good choice for readers who want both the pictures and a careful history.
André Kertész (Éditions Hazan, 2010). Edited by Michel Frizot and Annie-Laure Wanaverbecq for a touring retrospective. A large hardbound book of 360 pages with about 500 illustrations and seventeen essays. It follows his life from Budapest to his Paris years and his work for Vu, his move to New York and his late street photographs. It ends with his small color Polaroids. The prints are shown close to their original size and tone. For readers who want the fullest picture.
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