Brassaï was living proof that it is not necessary to be Parisian to be able to translate the truest and most intimate nature of the City of Lights into images. His real name was Gyula Halász and he was born in Brassó, Hungary hence the pseudonym Brassaï, but he had lived in Paris. He loved the night and the people who lived there. In 1933 he published the volume Paris de Nuit (Paris at Night), which soon became a milestone in the history of French photography. His shots portray intimate and confined interior spaces, where society met and had fun, and the characters he encountered along the dark streets: workers, prostitutes, homeless people, artists, solitary wanderers. The retrospective held at Palazzo Reale and curated by Philippe Ribeyrolles, scholar and nephew of Brassaï, presents more than 200 vintage prints, as well as sculptures, documents and objects that belonged to the photographer.
