Shadows in Paris

Andr'e Kert'esz, sometimes called the father of modern photography, began taking pictures at the age of eighteen in his native Hungary. In 1925, he moved to Paris and free-lanced for European publications. He became one of Paris's emigr'e artists and photographed Chagall, Mondrian, and Calder. ``Yet he maintained his connection with common life,'' according to Ben Lifson, in his introduction to ``Andr'e Kert'esz, a Lifetime of Perception,'' ``and although his bals musettes, music halls, and street fairs reflect Surrealist taste in popular art, his tramps and wounded war veterans sprang from his own understanding of homelessness.'' He emigrated to New York in 1936, working as a magazine photographer. However, his distinctive style was not readily accepted, and it wasn't until 1964 that Kert'esz was recognized with a one-man exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.