"To photograph is to put the head, the eye and the heart on the same line of sight"
- Henri Cartier-Bresson
From the late 1920s to the beginning of the 21st century, photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson has made every effort to respect the principle of life and sight reported in the subtitle-quote here above. Since he began exhibiting and publishing pictures of him, some have tried to define what constituted the unity of this principle. His genius for composition, his intelligence of situations or his ability to grasp them at the right moment, were therefore more often summed up in the notion of "decisive moment".
“If there is no emotion, if there is no shock, if you don't react to sensitivity, you shouldn't take a picture. It's the picture that takes us".
– Henri Cartier-Bresson
This is how Henri Cartier-Bresson perceived photography. His entire existence has been marked by the quest for the perfect photo, in the right place at the right time. Inspired by the surrealist movement, the native of Chanteloup-en-Brie followed the cubism of André Lhote and the dialectical realism of Jean Renoir to shape his photographer's paw. Cartier-Bresson captured with his Leica the key moments in the history of the 20th century, from the liberation of Paris in 1944 to the Cuban crisis during the Cold War as well as the death of Gandhi. The man still remains famous for his work as a photojournalist, notably under the banner of Magnum Photos, a photographic cooperative that he co-founded, even if his personal works have certainly forged his legend.
“Photography is, for me, a spontaneous impulse coming from an ever attentive eye which captures the moment and its eternity.”
– Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson became famous for bringing more attention on the progress of photography and the process that led to the amazing pictures rather than just on the end product. In one of his quotes he noted that pictures are not made with just a camera but with the eye, heart, and head as well. He was born in Chanteloup in 1908 and spent most of his youth immersed in the bohemian atmosphere of Paris. As a young man he tried to pursue a career as a painter but without much success. In the 1920s he was very close to the surrealist movement from which he borrowed the interpretation of the details scattered in everyday life.
In 1932, after a trip to the Ivory Coast that made him fall in love with photography, he decided to buy a 35 mm Leica as his own expressive tool. The surrealist photos taken during his travels in Mexico and Europe between 1932 and 1935 made him famous as an art-photographer in New York. Upon his return to France in 1937, he began to devote himself to photojournalism after a period of apprenticeship as a director with Jean Renoir.
During the Second World War Cartier-Bresson joined the French army but was taken prisoner by the Nazis. He remained in a prison camp for thirty-five months during which time he tried several times to escape. He succeeded only the third attempt, though. Once free he joined the ranks of the French Resistance and was then able to document the liberation of Paris in 1944 with his Leica.
In 1947, he founded the historic agency Magnum together with his friends photographers David Seymour, Robert Capa, George Rodger and William Vandivert. From this moment he will begin to travel the world, creating photographic reports that will go down in history. For that reason, Magnum would become the largest photographic agency in the world.
At the peak of his career he published "The decisive moment" in 1953 which is considered a true "Bible" for all reportage photographers. He pursued his career as a photojournalist until his retirement in the 1970s.
1930s, the early works
1944 - 1945, the beginning of photojournalism: the liberation of Paris and the end of the WW2
1948 - 1950: Gandhi's death in India, the Chinese civil war and the Indonesian independence
“For me the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the master of the instant which, in visual terms, questions and decides simultaneously. In order to "give a meaning" to the world, one has to feel oneself involved in what one frames through the viewfinder. This attitude requires concentration, a discipline of the mind, sensitivity, and a sense of geometry.”
― Henri Cartier-Bresson
When I was studying French culture at university in Milan, my teacher asked me this question during the exam: What did Bresson leave behind?
Today, after having explored the subject more in depth through this post, I would reply that Bresson has left a desire to renew himself, seeking simplicity, in every photograph. He thought that every photographer looking for something special is completely building his shot instead. His works always convey the desire for simplicity and the beauty in small things.
His subjects never pose. He used to hide his camera and blend in with local to achieve that. Because he got to the conclusion that if the subject knows he is being photographed, he will behave unnaturally. Elementary, Monsieur “L’oeil du Siècle”.
That first photo with the pigeons isn't a Bresson photo. It's a Rui Palha photo. Please revise this. Thanks!