A Love Made Out of Nothing, Zohara's Journey

A Love Made Out of Nothing, Zohara's Journey

Au coin de la Rue de la Renie (detail) 1930-1931

A woman waiting on a dimly lit streetcorner, legs silhouetted in darkness, is one of the clichés of film noir and mystery novels. Brassai may have been thinking more in documentary than cinematic terms when he photographed in the red-light district of nocturnal 1930's Paris, but his pictures resonated with other artists and writers of his era, and eventually became part of the lingua franca of filmmakers like Orson Welles, Otto Preminger and Billy Wilder.
In John Grippando's 2001 thriller, Under Cover of Darkness, Brassai's influence is clearly present, but whether or not the uncredited photographer had the Brassai image in mind when he made the cover picture, or even knew of Brassai at all, is another matter. In the 70 year span between the first photograph and the second, the purity and newness of Brassai's original vision has been watered-down and cross-pollenated as it spread through Western culture, until, finally, it becomes impossible to keep track of the long chain of influence.