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Henri Cartier-Bresson — news, coverage & facts — IJR

Magnum Photos

In early 1947, Cartier-Bresson, with Robert Capa, David Seymour, William Vandivert and George Rodger founded Magnum Photos. Capa's brainchild, Magnum was a cooperative picture agency owned by its members. The team split photo assignments among the members. Rodger, who had quit Life in London after covering World War II, would cover Africa and the Middle East. Chim, who spoke a variety of European languages, would work in Europe. Cartier-Bresson would be assigned to India and China. Vandivert, who had also left Life, would work in America, and Capa would work anywhere that had an assignment. Maria Eisner managed the Paris office and Rita Vandivert, Vandivert's wife, managed the New York office and became Magnum's first president.

Cartier-Bresson achieved international recognition for his coverage of Gandhi's funeral in India in 1948 and the last stage of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. He covered the last six months of the Kuomintang administration and the first six months of the Maoist People's Republic. He also photographed the last surviving Imperial eunuchs in Beijing, as the city was being liberated by the communists. In Shanghai, he often worked in the company of photojournalist Sam Tata, whom Cartier-Bresson had previously befriended in Bombay. From China, he went on to Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), where he documented the gaining of independence from the Dutch. In 1950, Cartier-Bresson had traveled to the South India. He had visited Tiruvannamalai, a town in the Indian State of Tamil Nadu and photographed the last moments of Ramana Maharishi, Sri Ramana Ashram and its surroundings. A few days later he also visited and photographed Sri Aurobindo, Mother and Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry.

Magnum's mission was to "feel the pulse" of the times and some of its first projects were People Live Everywhere, Youth of the World, Women of the World and The Child Generation. Magnum aimed to use photography in the service of humanity, and provided arresting, widely viewed images.

The Decisive Moment

In 1952, Cartier-Bresson published his book Images à la sauvette, whose English-language edition was titled The Decisive Moment, (although the French-language title actually translates as "images on the sly" or "hastily taken images") Images à la sauvette included a portfolio of 126 of his photos from the East and the West. The book's cover was drawn by Henri Matisse. For his 4,500-word philosophical preface, Cartier-Bresson took his keynote text from Volume 2 of the Memoirs of 17th century Cardinal de Retz, "Il n'y a rien dans ce monde qui n'ait un moment decisif" ("There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment"). Cartier-Bresson applied this to his photographic style. He said: "Photographier: c'est dans un même instant et en une fraction de seconde reconnaître un fait et l'organisation rigoureuse de formes perçues visuellement qui expriment et signifient ce fait" ("To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which give that event its proper expression.").

The title Images à la Sauvette came from Tériade, the Greek-born French publisher whom Cartier-Bresson admired. Dick Simon of Simon & Schuster came up with the English title The Decisive Moment. Margot Shore, Magnum's Paris bureau chief, translated Cartier-Bresson's French preface into English.

"Photography is not like painting", Cartier-Bresson told The Washington Post in 1957. "There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative", he said. "Oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever." The photo, Rue Mouffetard, Paris, taken in 1954 by Cartier-Bresson, is a classic example of capturing a decisive moment.

Cartier-Bresson held his first exhibition in France at the Pavillon de Marsan in 1955.

Death and legacy

Cartier-Bresson died in Céreste (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France) on 3 August 2004, 19 days before his 96th birthday. No cause of death was announced. He was buried in the local cemetery nearby in Montjustin and was survived by his wife, Martine Franck, and daughter, Mélanie.

Cartier-Bresson worked for more than three decades on assignment for Life and other journals. During this period, he travelled widely, documenting major events of the 20th century, including the Spanish Civil War, the liberation of Paris in 1944, the Chinese Civil War and the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, the May 1968 protests in Paris, and the Berlin Wall. He also produced portraits of figures such as Albert Camus, Pablo Picasso, Colette, Henri Matisse, Ezra Pound, and Alberto Giacometti.

In addition to covering historical events and prominent cultural figures, many of his best-known photographs depict everyday life, including Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare.

Cartier-Bresson did not like to be photographed and treasured his privacy. Photographs of Cartier-Bresson are scant. When he accepted an honorary degree from Oxford University in 1975, he held a paper in front of his face to avoid being photographed.

In a Charlie Rose interview in 2000, Cartier-Bresson noted that it wasn't necessarily that he hated to be photographed, but it was that he was embarrassed by the notion of being photographed for being famous.

Cartier-Bresson believed that what went on beneath the surface was nobody's business but his own. He did recall that he once confided his innermost secrets to a Paris taxi driver, certain that he would never meet the man again.

In 2003, he created the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation in Paris with his wife, the Belgian photographer Martine Franck, and his daughter to preserve and share his legacy. In 2018, the foundation relocated from the Montparnasse district to Le Marais.

The highest price reached by one of his photographs was when Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare sold at Christie's, on 17 November 2011, by $590,455.

Technique

Cartier-Bresson almost always used a Leica 35 mm rangefinder camera fitted with a normal 50 mm lens, or occasionally a wide-angle lens for landscapes. He often wrapped black tape around the camera's chrome body to make it less conspicuous. With fast black and white film and sharp lenses, he was able to photograph events unnoticed. No longer bound by a 4×5 press camera or a medium format twin-lens reflex camera, miniature-format cameras gave Cartier-Bresson what he called "the velvet hand...the hawk's eye."

He never photographed with flash, a practice he saw as "impolite...like coming to a concert with a pistol in your hand."

He believed in composing his photographs in the viewfinder, not in the darkroom. He showcased this belief by having nearly all his photographs printed only at full-frame and completely free of any cropping or other darkroom manipulation. He insisted that his prints be left uncropped so as to include a few millimeters of the unexposed negative around the image area, resulting in a black frame around the developed picture.

Cartier-Bresson worked exclusively in black and white, other than a few experiments in color. He disliked developing or making his own prints and showed a considerable lack of interest in the process of photography in general, likening photography with the small camera to an "instant drawing". Technical aspects of photography were valid for him only where they allowed him to express what he saw:

Constant new discoveries in chemistry and optics are widening considerably our field of action. It is up to us to apply them to our technique, to improve ourselves, but there is a whole group of fetishes which have developed on the subject of technique. Technique is important only insofar as you must master it in order to communicate what you see... The camera for us is a tool, not a pretty mechanical toy. In the precise functioning of the mechanical object perhaps there is an unconscious compensation for the anxieties and uncertainties of daily endeavor. In any case, people think far too much about techniques and not enough about seeing.

He started a tradition of testing new camera lenses by taking photographs of ducks in urban parks. He never published the images but referred to them as 'my only superstition' as he considered it a 'baptism' of the lens.

Cartier-Bresson is regarded as one of the art world's most unassuming personalities. He disliked publicity and exhibited a ferocious shyness since his days of hiding from the Nazis during World War II. Although he took many famous portraits, his face was little known to the world at large. This, presumably, helped allow him to work on the street undisturbed. He denied that the term "art" applied to his photographs. Instead, he thought that they were merely his gut reactions to fleeting situations that he had happened upon.

In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject. The little human detail can become a leitmotiv.

Publications

1947: The Photographs of Henri Cartier-Bresson. Text by Lincoln Kirstein. New York: Museum of Modern Art.

1952: The Decisive Moment. Texts and photographs by Cartier-Bresson. Cover by Henri Matisse. New York: Simon & Schuster. French edition

2014: Göttingen: Steidl. ISBN 978-3869307886. Facsimile edition. First edition, 2014. Third edition, 2018. Includes booklet with an essay by Clément Chéroux, "A Bible for Photographers".

1954: Les Danses à Bali. Texts by Antonin Artaud on Balinese theater and commentary by Béryl de Zoete Paris: Delpire. German edition.

1955: The Europeans. Text and photographs by Cartier-Bresson. Cover by Joan Miró. New York: Simon & Schuster. French edition.

1955: People of Moscow. London: Thames & Hudson. French, German and Italian editions.

1956: China in Transition. London: Thames & Hudson. French, German and Italian editions.

1958: Henri Cartier-Bresson: Fotografie. Prague and Bratislava: Statni nakladatelstvi krasné. Text by Anna Farova.

1963: Photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresson. New York: Grossman Publisher. French, English, Japanese and Swiss editions.

1964: China. Photographs and notes on fifteen months spent in China. Text by Barbara Miller. New York: Bantam. French edition.

1966: Henri Cartier-Bresson and the Artless Art. Text by Jean-Pierre Montier. Translated from the French L'Art sans art d'Henri Cartier-Bresson by Ruth Taylor. New York: Bulfinch Press.

1968: The World of HCB. New York: Viking Press. French, German and Swiss editions. ISBN 978-0670786640

1969: Man and Machine. Commissioned by IBM. French, German, Italian and Spanish editions.

1970: France. Text by François Nourissier. London: Thames & Hudson. French and German editions.

1972: The Face of Asia. Introduction by Robert Shaplen. New York and Tokyo: John Weatherhill; Hong Kong: Orientations. French edition.

1973: About Russia. London: Thames & Hudson. French, German and Swiss editions.

1976: Henri Cartier-Bresson. Texts by Cartier-Bresson. History of Photography Series. History of Photography Series. French, German, Italian, Japanese and Italian editions.

1979: Henri Cartier-Bresson Photographer. Text by Yves Bonnefoy. New York: Bulfinch. French, English, German, Japanese and Italian editions. ISBN 978-0821207567

1983: Henri Cartier-Bresson. Ritratti = Henri Cartier-Bresson. Portraits. Texts by André Pieyre de Mandiargues and Ferdinando Scianna, "I Grandi Fotografi". Milan: Gruppo Editoriale Fabbri. English and Spanish editions.

1985:

Henri Cartier-Bresson en Inde. Introduction by Satyajit Ray, photographs and notes by Cartier-Bresson. Text by Yves Véquaud. Paris: Centre national de la photographie. English edition.

Photoportraits. Texts by André Pieyre de Mandiargues. London: Thames & Hudson. French and German editions.

1987:

Henri Cartier-Bresson. The Early Work. Texts by Peter Galassi. New York: Museum of Modern Art. French edition. ISBN 978-0870702624

Henri Cartier-Bresson in India. Introduction by Satyajit Ray, photographs and notes by Cartier-Bresson, texts by Yves Véquaud. London: Thames & Hudson. French edition.

1989:

L'Autre Chine. Introduction by Robert Guillain. Collection Photo Notes. Paris: Centre National de la Photographie.

Line by Line. Henri Cartier-Bresson's drawings. Introduction by Jean Clair and John Russell. London: Thames & Hudson. French and German editions.

1991:

America in Passing. Introduction by Gilles Mora. New York: Bulfinch. French, English, German, Italian, Portuguese and Danish editions.

Alberto Giacometti photographié par Henri Cartier-Bresson. Texts by Cartier-Bresson and Louis Clayeux. Milan: Franco Sciardelli.

1994:

A propos de Paris. Texts by Véra Feyder and André Pieyre de Mandiargues. London: Thames & Hudson. French, German and Japanese editions. ISBN 978-0821220641

Double regard. Drawings and photographs. Texts by Jean Leymarie. Amiens: Le Nyctalope. French and English editions.

Mexican Notebooks 1934–1964. Text by Carlos Fuentes. London: Thames & Hudson. French, Italian, and German editions.

L'Art sans art. Text de Jean-Pierre Montier. Paris: Editions Flammarion. English, German and Italian editions.

1996: L'Imaginaire d'après nature. Text by Cartier-Bresson. Paris: Fata Morgana. German and English editions'

1997: Europeans. Texts by Jean Clair. London: Thames & Hudson. French, German, Italian and Portuguese editions.

1998: Tête à tête. Texts by Ernst H. Gombrich. London: Thames & Hudson. French, German, Italian and Portuguese editions.

1999: The Mind's Eye. Text by Cartier-Bresson. New York: Aperture. French and German editions.

1999: Henri Cartier-Bresson: A Biography. Text by Pierre Assouline, translated by David Wilson. London: Thames and Hudson.

2001: Landscape Townscape. Texts by Erik Orsenna and Gérard Macé. London: Thames & Hudson. French, German and Italian editions.

2003: The Man, the Image and the World. Texts by Philippe Arbaizar, Jean Clair, Claude Cookman, Robert Delpire, Jean Leymarie, Jean-Noel Jeanneney and Serge Toubiana. London: Thames & Hudson, 2003. German, French, Korean, Italian and Spanish editions.

2005:

Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Mind's Eye: Writings on Photography and Photographers, Aperture; 1st edition. ISBN 978-0893818753

Henri Cartier-Bresson: Masters of Photography Series, Aperture; Third edition. ISBN 978-0893817442

2006: An Inner SIlence: The portraits of Henri Cartier-Bresson, New York: Thames & Hudson. Texts by Agnès Sire and Jean-Luc Nancy.

2010: Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century, The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Reprint edition. ISBN 978-0870707780

2015: Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Decisive Moment, Steidl; Pck Slp Ha edition. ISBN 978-3869307886

2017: Henri Cartier-Bresson Fotógrafo. Delpire.

Exhibitions

1933 Cercle Ateneo, Madrid

1933 Julien Levy Gallery, New York

1934 Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City (with Manuel Alvarez Bravo)

1947 Museum of Modern Art, New York, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany; Museum of Modern Art, Rome, Italy; Dean Gallery, Edinburgh; Museum of Modern Art, New York City; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile

1952 Institute of Contemporary Arts, London

1955 Retrospektive – Musée des Arts décoratifs, Paris

1956 Photokina, Cologne, Germany

1963 Photokina, Cologne, Germany

1964 The Phillips Collection, Washington

1965–1967 2nd retrospective, Tokyo, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, New York, London, Amsterdam, Rome, Zurich, Cologne and other cities.

1970 En France – Grand Palais, Paris. Later in the US, USSR, Australia and Japan

1971 Les Rencontres d'Arles festival. Movies screened at Théatre Antique.

1972 Les Rencontres d'Arles festival. "Flagrant Délit" (Production Delpire) screened at Théatre Antique.

1974 Exhibition about the USSR, International Center of Photography, New York

1974–1997 Galerie Claude Bernard, Paris

1975 Carlton Gallery, New York

1975 Galerie Bischofberger, Zurich, Switzerland

1980 Brooklyn Museum, New York

1980 Photographs, Art Institute of Chicago

1980 Portraits – Galerie Eric Franck, Geneva, Switzerland

1981 Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France

1982 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

1982 Hommage à Henri Cartier-Bresson – Centre National de la Photographie, Palais de Tokyo, Paris

1983 Printemps Ginza – Tokyo

1983 Fundación Juan March – Madrid

1984 Osaka University of Arts, Japan

1984–1985 Paris à vue d’œil – Musée Carnavalet, Paris

1985 Henri Cartier-Bresson en Inde – Centre National de la Photographie, Palais de Tokyo, Paris

1985 Museo de Arte Moderno de México, Mexico

1986 L'Institut Français de Stockholm

1986 Pavillon d'Arte contemporanea, Milan, Italy

1986 Tor Vergata University, Rome, Italy

1987 Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, UK (drawings and photography)

1987 Early Photographs – Museum of Modern Art, New York

1988 Institut Français, Athen, Greece

1988 Palais Lichtenstein, Vienna, Austria

1988 Salzburger Landessammlung, Austria

1988 Group exhibition: "Magnum en Chine" at Rencontres d'Arles, France.

1989 Chapelle de l'École des Beaux-Arts, Paris

1989 Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Martigny, Switzerland (drawings and photographs)

1989 Mannheimer Kunstverein, Mannheim, Germany (drawings and photography)

1989 Printemps Ginza, Tokyo, Japan

1990 Galerie Arnold Herstand, New York

1991 Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan (drawings and photographs)

1992 Centro de Exposiciones, Saragossa and Logrono, Spain

1992 Hommage à Henri Cartier-Bresson – International Center of Photography, New York

1992 L'Amérique – FNAC, Paris

1992 Musée de Noyers-sur-Serein, France

1992 Palazzo San Vitale, Parma, Italy

1993 Photo Dessin – Dessin Photo, Arles, France

1994 Henri Cartier-Bresson, point d'interrogation by Sarah Moon screened at Rencontres d'Arles festival, France.

1994 Dessins et premières photos – La Caridad, Barcelona, Spain

1995 Dessins et Hommage à Henri Cartier-Bresson – CRAC (Centre Régional d’Art Contemporain) Valence, Drome, France

1996 Henri Cartier-Bresson: Pen, Brush and Cameras – The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, US

1997 Les Européens – Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris

1997 Henri Cartier-Bresson, dessins – Musée des Beaux-Arts, Montreal

1998 Galerie Beyeler, Basel, Switzerland

1998 Galerie Löhrl, Mönchengladbach, Germany

1998 Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York

1998 Kunsthaus Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland

1998 Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany

1998 Line by Line – Royal College of Art, London

1998 Tête à Tête – National Portrait Gallery, London

1998–1999 Photographien und Zeichnungen – Baukunst Galerie, Cologne, Germany

2003–2005 Rétrospective, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris; La Caixa, Barcelona; Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin; Museum of Modern Art, Rome; Dean Gallery, Edinburgh; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile

2004 Baukunst Galerie, Cologne

2004 Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin

2004 Museum Ludwig, Cologne

2008 Henri Cartier-Bresson's Scrapbook Photographs 1932–46, National Media Museum, Bradford, UK

2008 National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, India

2008 Santa Catalina Castle, Cadiz, Spain

2009 Musée de l'Art Moderne, Paris

2010 Museum of Modern Art, New York

2010 The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

2011 Museum of Design Zürich

2011 High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA

2011 Maison de la Photo, Toulon, France

2011 Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany

2011 Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia

2011-2012 KunstHausWien, Vienna, Austria

2014 Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.

2015 Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City

2015 Ateneum, Helsinki

2017 Leica Gallery, San Francisco.

2017 Museo Botero/Banco de la Republica, Bogota Colombia

2018 International Center of Photography, New York

2021 Le Grand jeu, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, France

2022 Cina 1948-49/1958, MUDEC, Milan, Italy

2022 L'expérience du paysage, Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris, France

2026 Les Européens (The Europeans), Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris France

Henri Cartier-Bresson

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Henri Cartier-Bresson

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Henri Cartier-Bresson across IJR

Article

Notable quotes

Article

Early life

Painting

Surrealists photography influence

Cambridge and army

Receives first camera

Escape to Africa

Photography

United States exhibits

Filmmaking

Photojournalism start

Marriage

World War II service

Magnum Photos

The Decisive Moment

Later career

Death and legacy

Cinéma vérité

Technique

Publications

Filmography

Films directed by Cartier-Bresson

Films compiled from photographs by Cartier-Bresson

Films about Cartier-Bresson

Exhibitions

Public collections

Awards

Notable quotes

Henri Cartier-Bresson across IJR