For my photography column in the spring 2022 issue of Fine Books Magazine, I wrote about the early work of Hungarian-born photographer André Kertész. Before becoming an influential photojournalist, he used postcard prints to capture the bohemian life of Paris. Selections of these works are on view at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta through May 29:
From 1925 to 1928, before the magazine commissions and exhibitions, his main photographic medium was something much humbler: the carte postale, the popular postcard format used for sending messages and selling souvenirs. Without depleting his meager savings, the small-scale format enabled him to experiment, leading to a lyrical yet formal style that would be foundational for his practice.