“I said to her, "Do something with the spirit of the studio corner" and she started to move on the sofa. She just made a movement. I took only two photographs. No need to shoot a hundred rolls like people do today. People in motion are wonderful to photograph. It means catching the right moment - the moment when something when something changes into something else”
~ Andre Kertesz
‘“Whatever we have done, Kertesz did first. We all owe something to Kertesz”
~ Henri Cartier Bresson
Paris in the 1920’s was the epicenter of the art world. A city of Jazzy exuberance and energy. It was a magnet for creatives and the birth place of Modernism. So many great artists flocked there, Mondrian, Brancusi, you name them.
Magda Forstner was a popular Hungarian dancer and cabaret performer and Kertesz brought her to the studio of his fellow Hungarian emigre friend, the sculptor István Beöthy. Andre encouraged Magda to playfully respond to Beöthy's sculpture placed in the corner of the room and to strike a pose on the couch. The result is one of the most joyful images in the history of photography that captures the spirit of the time and place they all came to experience. Perhaps a magical case of life imitating art. This is one of the most beautiful signed, physical prints of this key Kertesz image I have ever seen. It just glows!