ANDRÉ KERTÉSZ
Satiric Dancer 1926
mission du patrimoine photographique, paris
hands: noel bourcier, 3.31.93

André Kertész took Satiric Dancer in 1926, a year after arriving in Paris from Budapest at the age of 31. He was clowning around with some Hungarian pals in sculptor István Beothy’s studio. Dancer Magda Förstner mimicked the host’s statuary, and Kertész, with his small glass-plate camera, recorded her jest.

Later in his life, Kertész became allergic to photographic chemicals. Igor Bakht, a Russian who grew up in Teheran, where his father was official photographer to the Shah, made all his prints after 1964.

“If you are not careful printing Satiric Dancer, the dress goes black and has no detail,” says the 62 year-old Bakht. “I give an extra bit of exposure to the right edge of the negative, and I’ll burn in the arms and legs and the lower part of the sculpture with an even longer exposure in order to get a bit of tone and separation there.”

“André wanted rich prints, but not too rich. If I’d brought out the clouds too dramatically in a picture, he’d say, ‘ That’s too crafty. I want it slightly on the subtle side.’ ”