Henri CARTIER BRESSON
Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908 – 2004) was a French humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, arguably the most significant photographer of the twentieth-century, and one of the founding members of Magnum Photos. He pioneered the genre of street photography, and viewed photography as capturing a decisive moment. As an early user of 35mm film, Cartier-Bresson's humane, spontaneous photographs helped establish photojournalism as an art form. He brought a new aesthetic and practice to photography, initiated modern photojournalism, and influenced countless followers.
Behind the Gare St. Lazare, Paris, 1932
Gelatin Silver Print, printed later
9.5 x 14 inches (image size)
12 x 16 inches (paper size)
Signed in ink on recto below image.
Photographer's copyright blind stamp lower left margin.
“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.”
– Henri Cartier-Bresson
“To photograph: it is to put on the same line of sight the head, the eye and the heart.”
– Henri Cartier-Bresson
“In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject. The little, human detail can become a Leitmotiv.”
– Henri Cartier-Bresson
“I believe that, through the act of living, the discovery of oneself is made concurrently with the discovery of the world around us.”
– Henri Cartier-Bresson
