
Henri Cartier-Bresson
French Photographer and Filmmaker
Movements and Styles: Modern Photography, Straight Photography, Photojournalism, Documentary Photography
Born: August 22, 1908 - Chantelop-en-Brie, France
Died: August 3, 2004 - Montjustin, France

Table of contents
> Summary> Key Ideas
> Artworks
> Biography & Legacy
Influences and Connections
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"There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment"

Summary of Henri Cartier-Bresson
Cartier-Bresson's work spanned photographic genres for the entirety of his long career. He is regarded as a pioneer of candid and street photography but he is also well-known for having produced some of the most compelling photographic portraits of notables ranging from Jean-Paul Sartre and Leonard Bernstein to Marilyn Monroe and Malcolm X. An early user of 35mm film, Cartier-Bresson preferred never to use the darkroom to adjust his photographs, a choice that enhanced the spontaneity of his images and emphasized what he called "the decisive moment." No single photographer is more closely linked to the development of modern photojournalism than is Cartier-Bresson, whose itinerant nature brought him to some of the most momentous events and sites in modern history - from the liberation of Paris from Nazi occupation to the assassination of Mahatma Ghandi.
Key Ideas

Born in Chanteloup-en-Brie, France in 1908 to a wealthy textile merchant, Henri Cartier-Bresson was the eldest of five children. His mother, Marthe, exposed him to the arts including taking him on trips to the Louvre in Paris, attending chamber music concerts, and regularly reading him poetry. His father, Andre, was a severe man, consumed with the role of paternal duty and dedicated to his successful textile business. In response to his father's defection to the world of business, Henri vowed at an early age never to follow in his father's footsteps.
Important Art by Henri Cartier-Bresson The below artworks are the most important by Henri Cartier-Bresson - that both overview the major creative periods, and highlight the greatest achievements by the artist. | |
![]() Artwork Images | Place de l'Europe Gare Saint Lazare (1932)Artwork description & Analysis: Place de l'Europe is one of Cartier-Bresson's most successful images. The snapshot of a man gleefully hopping over a flooded area in Paris captures the moment just before the man's heel hits the water. The instant is filled with a sort of dynamic anticipation. A hazily-captured building in the distance contrasts with the richly ornamented, spiked fence and the two diverse elements combine in an alchemy of lines, curves, and reflections that creates the urban background for the jumper. Diagonal to the figure is a poster featuring a finely-drawn image of a female dancer leaping gracefully into the air. The poster for a circus called "Railowsky" is a visual play on the jumper's stiff stride that extends in a blur across the picture frame. Gelatin silver print - Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York |
![]() Artwork Images | Hyéres, France (1932)Artwork description & Analysis: Hyéres, France is an example of Cartier-Bresson's commitment to a sense of geometry and order. The stair rail leads the viewer's eye spiraling down to the street where the cyclist is frozen in the exact void between the building and the stair railing. The combination of architectural elements and the blurry image of the biker emphasize movement through their spirals, curves, and slight distortion. Cartier-Bresson's taste for construction through a tight, clear system of carefully ordered forms stemmed from his art teacher, Lhote, who was a Cubist painter. Paired with the aid of his Leica, Cartier-Bresson discovered the possibility of creating geometrical constructions in photography, structures that were enclosed within a perfect proportion (2:3) of the frame. Gelatin Silver Print - Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York |
![]() Artwork Images | Seville, Spain (1933)Artwork description & Analysis: This photograph captures a group of children playing in the rubble in Seville, Spain. Framed by the empty, bombed-out section of a wall, the children interact joyfully and uninhibitedly among the ruins and desolation, in a space that is profoundly unchildlike. They are completely unaware that they are being observed. The ragged edges of the white, stuccoed wall could just as easily be the very surface of the photograph tearing open and inviting the viewer to look on undiscovered. The ambiguity of the picture space is a testament to Cartier-Bresson's engagement with Surrealism, of which visual puzzles were a major feature. Gelatin Silver Print - The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California |
More Henri Cartier-Bresson Artwork and Analysis:
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Content compiled and written by Jackie Meade
Edited and revised, with Synopsis and Key Ideas added by Brynn Hatton
" Artist Overview and Analysis". [Internet]. . TheArtStory.org
Content compiled and written by Jackie Meade
Edited and revised, with Synopsis and Key Ideas added by Brynn Hatton
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First published on 19 Nov 2016. Updated and modified regularly.
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