"Andre Kertesz (1894-1985) is one of the most important photographers of the twentieth century. In a career that spanned more than seventy years, he made some of the most deceptively simple yet compelling photographs ever created. He sought to capture the poetry of modern urban life, revealing its quiet incidents and odd, occasional comic, even bizarre juxtapositions." "This book chronicles his art, from his first works taken in his native Hungary just shortly before World War I, to his highly celebrated photographs of Paris in the 1920s and 1930s, and his studies of New York from the late 1930s to the early 1980s. Greenough and her colleagues have examined the extensive archive of diaries, letters, date books, clippings, and other memorabilia preserved by the artist himself. In their essays and an illustrated chronology, they provide new insights into the development of Kertesz's life and art, and its significance for twentieth-century photography. This book includes more than 250 reproductions and numerous excerpts from the photographer's previously unpublished correspondence and diaries."--Jacket.