Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French photographer who was seen as the ‘father of journalism’ and candid photography. Taking interest in recording human activity, he photographed the ‘everyday’ moments. Examining his influential publications, The Decisive Moment is seen as one of the most major photobooks of the twentieth century. Robert Capa described it as “a Bible for photographers.”. The book was not originally called The Decisive Moment, but was named Images à la Sauvette (“images on the run”). Little did Bresson know that this would latter become his motto, defining his popular work.

Henri was born in Chanteloup-en-Brie, Seine-et-Marne, and built up a great fascination with painting in the style of Surrealism. He discovered the Leica after spending a year in the Ivy Coast in 1932. The Lecia became his most frequently used camera, and influenced him to start his life-long career photography. His first ever exhibition was at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York in 1933. After , in 1940, he was taken as a prisoner of war but managed to escape on his third attempt three years later. He then joined an underground organisation to help prisoners and other escapes. He filmed the documentary Le Retour (The Return) after he photographed Paris’ liberation in 1945.

He travelled in the East for three years, however in 1952 he returned to Europe and published his first book The Decisive Moment. He stated “For me the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the master of the instant which, in visual terms, questions and decides simultaneously. In order to ‘give a meaning’ to the world, one has to feel involved in what one frames through the viewfinder. This attitude requires concentration, discipline of mind, sensitivity, and a sense of geometry. It is by economy of means that one arrives at simplicity of expression.”

He created the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris with his wife and daughter to preserve his work, which he won multiple awards for. He later passed away in 2004.