André Kertész (Hungarian Photographer)

General

posted December 11, 2007

André Kertész (July 2, 1894 – September 28, 1985) born Andor Kertész, was a Hungarian-born photographer distinguished by his photographic composition and by his early efforts in developing the photo essay. In the early years of his lengthy career, his then-unorthodox camera angles, and his unwillingness to compromise his personal photographic style, prevented his work from gaining wider recognition.

Known for his extended study of Washington Square Park and his distorted nudes of the 1930s, Andre Kertesz was a quiet but important influence on the coming of age of photojournalism and the art of photography. For more than seventy years, his subtle and penetrating vision helped to define a medium in its infancy. Though he spent most of his life in the United States, his European modernist sensibility is what made him great, and that is what he is remembered for today.

Kertesz was one of three brothers from a middle-class family. Soon after getting his bachelor’s degree from the Hungarian Academy of Commerce in 1912, he found a job as a clerk at the Budapest Stock Exchange. Though the work seemed far from his deeper aspirations, it did provide him with the resources to purchase his first camera. When, in 1914, he was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army, he brought along his camera. The photographs he made during the war represent the beginnings of his formation as a serious artist. Unlike other war photographs, Kertesz’s concerned themselves with the lives of soldiers away from the fighting. Part of Kertesz’s genius was his ability to cast attention on images seemingly "unimportant." These subtle images of the moments of joy and contemplation away from the front were a revolutionary use of the newly invented hand-held camera.

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André Kertész (1894 - 1985)

Nació en Budapest el 2 de Julio de 1894. Desde muy pequeño se interesa por la fotografía, gracias a un manual que encontró en casa, luego de 1912, gracias a su trabajo como contador en la bolsa, cuando se puede comprar su primera cámara (ICA 4.5x6) y comienza a fotografiar escenas de la calle y de la campiña.

    Estudió en un pueblo húngaro y su día a día eran escenas tras las líneas de fuego de la Primera Guerra Mundial. Tratando de ganar dinero como fotógrafo, se mudo a Paris en 1925, donde pudo establecer una exitosa carrera como fotoperiodista. Inspirado por la comunidad artistica de la capital francesa, logro crear una de las más intrigantes y admiradas imágenes de ese período.

    En 1936 Kértezs se muda a Nueva York para avanzar como fotógrafo. Cautivado por el espectáculo visual de la ciudad, utilizó su cámara para captar su fascinación. Sus imágenes trascienden de una vida complicada nacida en los altos y bajos de una política, entre dos guerras y tres países.

    Kértezs murió a la edad de 91.

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