An opium smoker asleep, c. 1931

The Hungarian-French artist Brassaï, born Gyula Halász, used photography to document his nightly strolls in Paris from Montmartre to Montparnasse. Brassaï, who was also a poet, draughtsman, sculptor, and filmmaker, was part of the Parisian artistic milieu that included Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Salvador Dalí, Jean Genet, and Henry Miller. His nocturnal lifestyle resulted in the 1933 publication Paris de Nuit, a now famous collection of photographs taken during his escapades. In 1976, he published The Secret Paris of the 1930s, which featured many of the photographs from Paris de Nuit, with the addition of images considered too risqué for the original publication. Brassaï’s photographs capture the city’s brothels, opium dens, street fairs, clubs, and balls during a decade when liberal social attitudes were pervasive despite economic depression and the looming threat of Nazi Germany. Together, the photographs con struct a richly cinematic narrative in which the subjects, often unaware of the camera, unwittingly perform.