Holding a small camera and shooting photos on streets, Andre Kertesz is considered one of “the seminal figures of photojournalism” (Wiki). Kertesz was born in Hungary in 1894 (died in 1985). He got his first camera when he was 18. After finishing his Hungarian period of life, he immigrated to French in 1925. Since that, Kertesz started to shine on the world stage. Even though his life got a low point when he moved to the United Sates, he published a book named “Sixty Years of Photography, 1912-1972.” Kertesz’s special photograph style also strongly influents Henri Cartier-Bresson, the master of candid photography.

The first photograph of Kertesz is “The Circus.” It was shoot in 1920. At that time, Kertesz was still at Hungary and he liked to photograph the Hungarian peasants around him. Here we can see, there is a couple peeking at concealed circus performers through cracks in a wooden fence, and the man appears to have only one leg. This is Kertesz’s early work and it’s easy to see his clarity of style. This couple is centered and all the fence is geometric patterning in this photo. As Kertesz recorded, “I photographed real life-not the way it was, but the way I felt it. This is the most important thing: not analyzing, but feeling” (Blog). Here we can see, Kertesz was trying to make connection between his emotion and his subjects by using his special geometric photograph style. For me, I think the angel of shooting photos can arouse audience’s curiosity about what this couple is peeking there.

 The Circus, Budapest, 1920

Another photography of Kertesz is “The Lost Cloud” which was shoot in New York. As described, “One afternoon he observed a solitary white cloud lost in a huge blue sky, dwarfed by the monolithic presence of the Rockefeller Center” (Getty). Kertesz said this cloud represented himself. Here we can directly feel his emotion through looking at this photography. Kertesz endowed this cloud with a personal, emotional dimension. That exactly conformed to Kertesz’s photography style. The white space conflicts to the geometric building shape, which gives audience a feeling of Kertesz himself. In my opinion, this photo is fresh and vivid while it represents Kertesz’s real life situation. I think no matter what kind of photography skills we focus on, as long as we shoot objects by our hearts and feel them, we will experience the quintessential spirit of Andre Kertesz.

 The Lost Cloud, New York, 1937