Brassaï Secret Paris by Studio Bright at Heide
Enlarged photographs hang from fine wires, weighted by cobblestones, this exhibition invites visitors to step into 1930s Paris through Brassaï's lens.
Designed by Studio Bright Brassaï: Secret Paris was created in collaboration with Heide Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition presents more than 150 vintage prints by the Hungarian-born French photographer. In conversation with Architravels, founder Mel Bright shared how the studio approached the exhibition design.
Founded by Mel Bright in 2006, Studio Bright is a Melbourne architecture and design practice working across a range of scales and contexts, with each project focussing on craft and detail. Heide Museum of Modern Art brings together art, architecture and landscape within the former home and garden of collectors John and Sunday Reed, whose artist community became an important part of Melbourne’s cultural history.
Rather than a fixed brief, Heide's artistic director Lesley Harding offered a set of themes: Paris by Night, Paris by Day, Secret Paris, Nude, An Artful Gaze and Graffiti.
"There is a genuine trust placed in us to develop a thoughtful and considered response, while still working closely with the broader Heide team." Mel shared.
Born in Hungary in 1899, Brassaï studied painting in Budapest and Berlin before moving to Paris in 1924 as a journalist. Self-taught as a photographer, he began working with a camera borrowed from his friend and fellow artist André Kertész around 1929. He soon began photographing the city at night, eventually publishing Paris de Nuit (Paris by Night) in 1932. His photographs capture nocturnal streets, cafés and lovers alongside the artistic circles he encountered through friendships with Picasso and the Surrealists, as well as his enduring fascination with graffiti.
Structured into three sections, the exhibition begins in the largest gallery, Paris by Night, introduced by an account of Brassaï's life and work. Studio Bright painted the room black and closed it to daylight to echo the atmosphere of his photographs, while responding to their sensitivity to light. The transition from night to day is expressed through light and colour, with Paris by Day unfolding in a gallery of white walls and filtered natural light.
"I invent nothing. I imagine everything. I have sought only to express reality, for nothing is more surreal." - Brassaï
The smaller gallery explores Brassaï's engagement with Surrealism, which Bright describes as the more intimate and playful side of his work. Low aperture boxes frame individual photographs, inviting visitors to bend down and look through them, an act Bright likens to "peering through Brassaï's camera". A central viewing cone sits against the window, where a small opening in the film allows a glimpse back out towards Heide's gardens.
"It is a subtle moment within the exhibition, but one of my favourite parts, a brief reminder of the landscape beyond the gallery," said Bright.
Not invented, only framed.
Conscious of the temporary life cycle of exhibition materials, the studio worked with a restrained material palette, forming a lightweight system of panels that can be disassembled and reused beyond the exhibition. Translating photography into a spatial context, enlarged prints hang on fine wires and partly conceal neighbouring works, so each image might first be met alone.
"One of the lovely things about enlarging the photographs was discovering the etchings and markings Brassaï had made directly onto the negatives before printing. In a way, the enlarged format revealed another layer of his work that might otherwise have gone unnoticed."
Responding as much to the space itself as to Brassaï's photographs, Studio Bright approached the exhibition as a way of guiding visitors through his Paris. Asked about the experience the studio intended to create, Mel shared:
"Hopefully with this exhibition, you walk away feeling like you were able to have a moment of solitude with Brassaï's work."
Studio Bright's exhibition design for Brassaï: Secret Paris is on show at Heide Museum of Modern Art in Bulleen, Melbourne, until 15 November 2026.
PROJECT DETAILS
Exhibition: Brassaï: Secret Paris
Location: Heide Main Galleries, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Bulleen, Melbourne
Dates: 25 July – 15 November 2026
Exhibition design: Studio Bright
Curators: Emmanuelle de l'Ecotais, Lesley Harding, Philippe Ribeyrolles
Produced with: Estate Brassaï
Photography: Christian Capurro, Astrid Mulder
