Who is Henri Cartier-Bresson?
Henri Cartier-Bresson was born in Chanteloup-en-Brie, Seine-et-Marne, France. He was the oldest of five children, with his father being a wealthy textile manufacturer. His mother's family were cotton merchants and landowners from Normandy, where Henri spent part of his childhood. His parents supported him financially so Henri could pursue photography more freely than his contemporaries.
Henri took holiday snapshots with a Box Brownie; he later experimented with a 3×4 inch view camera. His father assumed that his son would take up the family business, but Henri also feared this prospect.
Returning to France, Cartier-Bresson deepened his relationship with the Surrealists. He became inspired by a 1930 photograph by Hungarian photojournalist Martin Munkacsi showing three naked young African boys, caught in near-silhouette, running into the surf of Lake Tanganyika. Titled Three Boys at Lake Tanganyika, this captured the freedom and grace of their movement and their joy at being alive. That photograph inspired him to stop painting and to take up photography seriously.
Some of the work he started to produce consisted of:
From this selection of a few of his images, I found that my eye was drawn to the picture of the wall crumbled in.
The contrast between the subjects within and the white crumbling wall, which in a way frames the image, allows the photograph to really define the faces of the individual children. From this it allows us to see the different expressions of each child, some seem to be captivated by this photographer taking the picture, whilst others are completely oblivious to it. Allowing the photographer to capture the playfulness but also the curiosity that is seen within each child. The fact that some of the children are playing on rubble, shows how that even in the worst scenarios, kids always make the best out of what they have, showing that innocence within.
From this selection of a few of his images, I found that my eye was drawn to the picture of the wall crumbled in.
The contrast between the subjects within and the white crumbling wall, which in a way frames the image, allows the photograph to really define the faces of the individual children. From this it allows us to see the different expressions of each child, some seem to be captivated by this photographer taking the picture, whilst others are completely oblivious to it. Allowing the photographer to capture the playfulness but also the curiosity that is seen within each child. The fact that some of the children are playing on rubble, shows how that even in the worst scenarios, kids always make the best out of what they have, showing that innocence within.
