Born in Budapest in 1906, Paul Almasy began his career as a photojournalist in the early 1930s after studying political science in Vienna and Heidelberg, Germany. Like many of his fellow photographers, such as André Kertesz, Francois Kollar, Brassaï, Lucien Hervé, who chose to live in France, Paul Almasy settled definitively in France in 1938. His photographic testimony on the human condition of his time prefigures the work of a Sebastiao Salgado and Almasy is one of the greatest photographers involved in social documentary of the twentieth century.
His long career as a photojournalist has allowed him to also work for organizations such as WHO and UNESCO and to interview great actors in history such as Mussolini, Eisenhower, Charles de Gaulle or Konrad Adenauer. His portraiture also touched on artistic personalities like Breton, Chagall or Giacometti. From 1973, he taught photojournalism and in 1978, Almasy received the distinction of “Master of Photography” by the European Council of Professional Photographers. He died in 2003, and left very rich work. His work has been presented by akg-images during more than thirty exhibitions in France and abroad. Four monographs were dedicated to him, always under akg-images, including the most recent “The twenty glorious ones, the daily life in “France 1950-1970” with the Editions du Seuil in 2007.
Paul Almasy
Santa Claus Presentation
5./6. December 2019
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