André Kertész

André Kertész (1894–1985) was a Hungarian‑born photographer whose intuitive vision and mastery of composition made him one of the most important figures of twentieth‑century photography. Born Andor Kertész in Budapest, he received his first camera in 1912 and soon began documenting intimate portraits of family and friends, the Hungarian countryside, and scenes of daily life behind World War I battle lines.

In 1925 Kertész moved to Paris and became an early adopter of the 35 mm format, establishing a successful career as a photojournalist. His first solo exhibition in Paris appeared in 1927, and the following year he introduced fellow Hungarian Brassaï to photography. Immersed in the city’s vibrant artistic circles, he photographed luminaries such as Piet Mondrian, Marc Chagall, Alexander Calder, and Constantin Brâncuși, while also capturing the quiet poetry of modern urban life through chance juxtapositions and unmanipulated, mirror‑like images. As Kertész explained, “You don’t see the things you photograph, you feel them.”

In 1936 he relocated to New York, where he recorded both his awe and alienation in the face of America’s bustling metropolis. Despite his prolific output, his work was not widely recognized as fine art until John Szarkowski’s 1964 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which cemented his reputation. In 1984 he was awarded the French Legion of Honor, and he died the following year at age ninety‑one. Through a lifetime of direct observation, André Kertész created a purely photographic idiom that celebrates the un­posed, the poetic, and the deeply human.