who was he:
Henri Cartier Bresson was a French artist and photographer who was well know for his candid photography and the use of 35mm film. Cartier Bresson began painting from a very young age being taught from his uncle until he was sadly killed in World War I. He then studied at an art school and from this his love for photography began. He began socialising with surrealists which was a movement founded in the 1924 to challenge notions of normality within photography. It was a 1930’s photograph produced by a Hungarian photo journalist that truly inspired him, Henri said “I suddenly understood that a photograph could fix eternity in an instant.” His first camera was a Leica with a 50mm lens which he had for many years. He photographed in many different countries and they were first exhibited at the Julien Levy Gallery in 1933 in New York. Cartier Bresson published his first photojournalist images in 1937 as he captured the king and queens coronation. He then began to focus on his book ‘The Decisive Moment’. The book was originally published in 1952 and essentially is a monograph of 126 pieces of his best work. He had a motivation in photography that once a moment it gone, it’s gone, and he wanted to capture them to make them last making his book such an impactful item.
some of his work:
bibliography: