the Secret Paris of 30's

This volume contains many photographs taken by Brassai which have never had wide circulation before because of their daring nature. His subject is the forbidden Paris of the 1930s, its opium dens, its brothels and its whores, where high society mingled with the underworld. The Secret Paris of the 30s is one of the most remarkable photographic memoirs ever published. For years it was known that Brassaï had taken a series of ‘secret photographs’ that could not be published because of their daring nature. Alone, or in the company of friends, he discovered the forbidden Paris of the 1930s – its brothels, its whores, its pimps, its opium dens – the sordid yet bewitching bas-monde where high society mingled with the underworld. Brassaï’s photographs reveal a milieu previously only known through books such as the novels of Henry Miller (a frequent companion on his nocturnal rambles): the seamy, grimy yet infinitely exciting reality that tourists still think of when they seek ‘Paris by night’. These fascinating images are accompanied by Brassaï’s own text, in which he describes the extraordinary conditions under which he took his photographs.