Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French humanist photographer born August 22, 1908, in Cantaloup France, he is considered to be the master of candid photography. He was one of the first photographers who reordered the use of street photography and photojournalism. 1923 he acquired his hand-held Leica camera with a 50mm lens.The camera gave the opportunity to capture intimate moment was essential in overcoming the formal and unnatural behaviour of those who were aware of being photographed, this was the start of his candid photography.

Mood Board

Magnum Photographers

“Magnum is a community of thought, a shared human quality, a curiosity about what is going on in the world, a respect for what is going on and a desire to transcribe it visually – Henri Cartier-Bresson

In 1947, after Second World War, four of the leading photographers at the time created an alliance to document, world events, people, places and different cultures with a message behind the image.Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, George Rodger and David Seymour created The Magnum Photos agency. Magnum Photos are known to be some of the most renowned photos and images that have changed the world, most of the icon images in the world have been taken by a Magnum photographer. Magnum photographers are a rarity and the agency is self-selecting; membership is a minimum four-year process and is considered the finest accolade of a photographer’s career. Magnum is one of the first photographic cooperatives, owned and administered entirely by members. The staff serve a support role for the photographers, who retain all copyrights to their own work. Although it has been asserted that the name “Magnum” was chosen because the founding members always drank a bottle of champagne during the first meetings.

Image Analysis

The image has been taken in black and white, which could have been to emphasize the silhouette of the mand and woman and the centre focus of the image which is the man jumping across the centre frame of the image. The image has been taken on a fast shutter speed as the man jumping has been captured mid-shot in and is very sharp. The image has has been taken using the natural lighting that was there at the time, which seems to be a very dull and grey day which helps to create a nice tonal range with the darkest colors bring in the silhouettes of the people and then having a range of colours in the sky from the natural environment. Visually the image could be spilt up into different sections would still be acceptable images by themselves, in the image, there are many harsh lines ( the building in the left-hand side of the image, the Elifle tower which then joins to create another line with the man’s legs). The image was taken in Paris in 1989 by Henri Cartier Bresson