In 1925 Kertesz left Budapest for Paris. The move was a manifesto, a natural, well-timed declaration, and only in the smallest sense was it a risk. The time had come for him to exchange a shaky business career for that of a committed artist. Since 1912 he had been photographing whenever he could, in between jobs at the Stock Exchange. His photographs had been published in the illustrated Hungarian magazines. He was thirty-one years old, sufficiently confident of his abilities, clearly aware of his own value, and ambitious to extend his limits. In Hungary he lacked the supportive atmosphere of an artistic community; in Paris, perhaps, he could live his life rather than continually have to explain it.  
                       --Carole Kismaric  

Madison Avenue, Low 50s