Henri Cartier-Bresson was born 22 August 1908 in  Chanteloup-en-Brie, Seine-et-Marne, France to a wealthy family. Henri studied at Cambridge from 1929 where he studied art, literature, an English before then returning to France. He is considered to be the father of photojournalism and one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century.

Henri Cartier-Bresson coined the term ‘decisive moment’ which refers to “the moment when all the elements in a photograph come together perfectly to create a meaningful image.”

“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.”

– Henri Cartier-Bresson, ‘the decisive moment’

Originally named Images à la Sauvette (“images on the run”), his book showcases his best work over the years from his portfolio.

During a workshop with Will Lakeman, we experimented with DreamStudio and the Photoshop AI.

On Photoshop I used neural filters and generative fill to create this image:

I then used it as a prompt in DreamStudio and made lots of different variations:

My personal favourite variation is this one as it’s the closest one to what I wanted:

Also, at the start of the workshop we experimented with DreamStudio, I put in the prompt “Cats in Roller-skates” to see what would come up and this came up:

For my street photography, I am going to take my images in Saint Malo.

WHAT

I am going to walk around St Malo and try and capture the ‘decisive moment’ like the work of Cartier Bresson.

WHEN

I am going to take my images in the afternoon when as it will be busy and lots will be going on

HOW

I will use different setting on my camera to adjusts it to the environment and wait in certain bus spots to capture a unique moment.

Contact Sheet:

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:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henri-Cartier-Bresson#:~:text=Henri%20Cartier%2DBresson%2C%20(born,photojournalism%20as%20an%20art%20form.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Cartier-Bresson#:~:text=Henri%20Cartier%2DBresson%20(French%3A,as%20capturing%20a%20decisive%20moment.

https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/surrealist-photography#:~:text=Strange%20shapes%2C%20floating%20body%20parts,perceptions%20of%20sanity%20and%20reality.

Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French artist and street photographer who was considered the master of candid photography and influenced many other photographers to take images in the style of street photography such as William Klein. Cartier-Bresson took great care and interest in capturing human activity and wanted to capture ‘everyday’ in his images. He wanted to capture the “decisive moment” so he would take his images of subjects without their knowledge, which created these unique and mysterious images as the viewers are left to interpret what is happening in the image.

Henri Cartier-Bresson created a book called “The Decisive Moment” presenting his images. “The Decisive moment” became Cartier-Bresson’s moto and in a way his own style of photography as he believed that there was a ‘decisive moment ‘in every scene laid before a photographer. He captured unique images, waiting for the decisive moment that had a sense of awe about them.

I will be using the work of Cartier Bresson as inspiration when taking my images around St Malo