Henri was born on August 22, 1908 in Chanteloup, France. He grew up in a wealthy family in France. It was in his early life that he was introduced to the arts. Cartier-Bresson developed an early love for literature and the arts since creativity was certainly a part of his DNA as his grandfather, uncle and father had been involved in some shape or form. Starting with painting and being drawn to it the most, Bresson soon discovered photography which he described as an extension of drawing and an extension of his eye. He used photography as his way of interacting with the world, he travelled extensively from Europe to Africa and explored many different cultures within his photography work. “I adore shooting photographs,” he’d later note. “It’s like being a hunter. But some hunters are vegetarians—which is my relationship to photography.” His effort and work with photography shaped his outlook on life and he believed that photography isn’t just about images, its about capturing the essence of existence. This is what became his founding of ‘The Decisive moment’

‘The Decisive Moment’ became an unintentional motto which later defined Cartier-Bresson’s work.

Henri Cartier Bresson was known for using a Leica rangefinder with a 50mm lens. this is because in his time, they were a revolutionary piece of equipment. they were compact, reliable and consisted of a discreet design instead of being large and noticeable like an ordinary camera in that time. This meant he was able to capture photos unnoticeably and be hidden while he took the photos which is essential for street photography.

What is the Decisive moment?

Cartier-Bresson presented this idea in his own book which became widely considered to be one of the most important photobooks of the twentieth century. Often described as ‘A bible for photographers’. The book was quite literally about taking pictures in a dynamic and moving world. It was the moment “when the visual and emotional elements of reality captured in the photograph align in perfect synchrony.” It’s the split second when the story, composition, and emotion culminate into a singular, powerful image.

This one particular photo taken by Cartier-Bresson is the perfect image to demonstrate the decisive moment. Bresson took this image while he was passing a contruction site and took the image by simply holding the camera meaning he had not set up any tools in order to capture this, it was simply just an in the moment image. Further evidence of this was that bresson had cropped this photo as he had taken it in between a fence which was visible on the original image. The lighting in this image is natural lighting as the use of shadows and reflections tell us the sky is what is creating the brightness in the image. The reflections further show the decisive moment as you can see how close the persons heel is to the ground and how the shot was captured just before it came into contact with the water.