Theory & Context – Henri Cartier-Bresson

Biography

Henri Cartier-Bresson was born in Chanteloup France and travelled around the world with his camera and became totally immersed in his environment. He was the oldest of five children and his family where wealthy, Bresson was educated in Paris and showed an early love for literature and arts which showed how creative he was as a young adult. His great grandfather had been an artist and he had an uncle who was a noted printer. This influenced his love for photography. His photography covered some of the worlds biggest events such as The Spanish Civil War and the French Uprisings in 1968.

The decisive moment

The decisive moment implies the constant flow of events, there are moments in which the arrangement of everything within the frame is perfect. These moments are spontaneous so the photographer must be ready to take the photo in the moment right away.

Mood board

Image Analysis

Henri Cartier-Bresson’s photos are all about capturing unexpected moments at the perfect time and the perfect moment. The colour in Henri Cartier-Bresson photos is black and white and there is a lot of shadow. There are a lot of geometric shapes and patterns in Bresson photography which draws your eye to the image making it more interesting and aesthetic to look at. The lines in the image also help to draw your eye to the image as the geometric shapes and lines act as leading lines for the focal point. This photo has a slow shutter speed which makes the figure of the person a little blurry. The arrangement of the image creates many geometric shapes and lines which makes the image more aesthetically pleasing to look at. The lighting in this image is very bright and there is a lot of exposure in the puddle that the person is jumping into. There is also a lot of shadows in the image which contrasts against the high exposure in the puddle.

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