Atget and Brassaï - Rue Asselin, at Suzzy's

Eugène Atget - Three Women on Rue Asselin, 1924 - 1925

Eugène Atget - Prostitute on Her Shift in Front of Her Doorway, Rue Asselin, La Villette, March 7, 1921

Brassaï - Introduction at Suzzy's

(Paris - A Gift for Jean)

Brassai, The Way a Poem of Ady's began on a Cafe Table in Paris

(image from archfoto.freeblog.hu)

Neither the issue nor the sire,
neither fulfillment nor desire
am I for anyone,
am I for anyone.

I am as all men, the sunless sea,
the alien Thule, mystery,
a fleeing wisp of light,
a fleeing wisp of light.

But I must look for friends and brothers;
I want to show myself to others
that seeing they will see,
that seeing they will see.

For this my lyric masochism;
I long to close the gaping schism,
and thus belong somewhere,
and thus belong somewhere.

(Ady Endre, Longing for Love, 1909)

Brassai - This is a Chair... Nothing More

Some days ago I was trying to describe this photo made by Brassai - finding it on the web seemed impossible. A friend was today of great help.
Do you remember? ... a secret wayside cafe... where... a shadow was the most ancient of the regulars... the verses of Eugene Guillevic.
A chair and a shadow, constant friends. Why is the shadow there? Hafiz would answer, to take care...

And love

Says,

I will, I will take care of you,

To everything that is

Near

(Hafiz)

(Sufi)

Brassai, Sartre au Cafe de Flore

I'm upstairs at the Flore and it's seven in the evening. It's agreeable, because you can hear all the people swarming beneath you, yet you are totally peaceful... I've regained all my peace of mind, since I had news of you and began writing to you again.
Simone de Beauvoir, January 1941

How far you are. I miss you... Paris is so dull when you aren't here to see what I'm seeing at the same time I see it... It's five o'clock, it's Saturday, I'm upstairs at the Flore, the sun is coming in the window.
Jean-Paul Sartre, summer 1943

And Sartre would note in Being and Nothingness, it is certain that the cafe by itself with its patrons, its tables, its booths, its mirrors, its light, its smoky atmosphere, and the sounds of voices, rattling saucers, and footsteps which fill it - the cafe is a fullness of being.

Brassai - Les Escaliers de Montmartre

Do you remember, Les Escaliers de Montmartre, by Teo Tarras? Here is how Brassaï saw them.

When you meet the man you see at once that he is equipped with no ordinary eyes (Henry Miller on Brassaï)

I'm looking on the web (vainly, I'm afraid) for a poster that I have in my apartment - the same Escaliers de Montmartre, two lovers in a hug, a kid looking at them with teasing eyes, an adult is stepping up, looking in an indefinite direction - the photo is dated 1950 - only there is no indication about the author.

I bought it in New Hope, a small town on the borders of Delaware, not very far from Philadelphia. It used to be a town for artists, and it kept something of their spirit - you feel it as you are wandering through the small galleries and bistros. It was a time when I was visiting New Hope quite often. Here is a pub in New Hope, from old times. It seems people were having fun in the old times...






(Philadelphia)

Brassai, Lovers in a Cafe

We sit very close in the cafe. We walk together very close. We are half sad, half joyous. It is warm. He smells my perfume. I look at his beautiful face. We desire each other.

Anais Nin, Henry & June: From the Unexpurgnated Diary of Anais Nin






When you meet the man you see at once that he is equipped with no ordinary eyes
Henry Miller on Brassaï

I dream
of wayward gulls
And all landles
Lovers

(William F. Claire
Thinking at Anais Nin)