Grand Central Station, New York City

Brassaï was a French photographer and artist best known for his nocturnal photographs of Paris from the 1930s onwards. Working primarily in black and white, he documented the city's underworld, street life, and architectural details with a distinctive graphic sensibility that emphasized shadow, texture, and geometric form. His photographs of graffiti, brothels, and nightclubs established a visual vocabulary for urban modernism that influenced generations of photographers. He also worked in sculpture, drawing, and printmaking, extending his formal investigations across multiple media throughout his career.