André Kertész

André Kertész was born in Budapest on July 2,1894. He graduated from the local Academy of Commerce in 1912 and subsequently worked as a clerk at the Budapest stock exchange. It was during this time that he bought his first camera and spent his time photographing scenes from everyday life, often on the city’s streets. In 1914 he was drafted by the Austrian Hungarian army and sent to the front. He took his camera with him and took photos of his fellow soldiers. He was badly injured on the battlefield and underwent a long period of forced convalescence. Emerging from it in 1925, he went back to work at the stock exchange, as he was unable to support himself solely with his photography.

In the same year he moved to Paris, working as a freelance photographer and collaborating with various European journals, including Vu, Art et Medicine, and the Times. He took up residence in Montparnasse and became part of the artistic and literary circles, photographing artists such as Fernand Léger, Piet Mondrian, Marc Chagall, Constantin Brancusi, and Alexander Calder. He also took shots of life on the city streets. His talent was soon recognized, and in 1927 he exhibited his photos in a solo exhibition at Au Sacre du Printemps gallery. In 1933, he made the now famous series of Distortions that adopted the visual language of Pablo Picasso, Jean Arp, and Henry Moore. The following year he published his book Paris vu par André Kertész.

In 1936, along with his wife of three years, Elisabeth Saly, he moved to New York and worked for a year at Keyston Agency. The war prevented him from returning to Paris, so he continued working in the U.S., where he appeared in Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, and Coronet and showed in exhibitions at the PM Gallery and the Art Institute of Chicago. After a retrospective of his work at The Museum of Modern Art in 1964, he became regarded as one of the leading figures of modern photography. Since then, his work has been shown widely throughout the world. Kertész wrote many books and monographs and died in New York on September 28, 1985.