Henri Cartier-Bresson - Photographs London Wednesday, May 16, 2012 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Acquired directly from the artist

  • Literature

    P. Galassi et al., Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Man, the Image and the World, London: Thames & Hudson, 2003, p. 69, pl. 64

  • Artist Biography

    Henri Cartier-Bresson

    French • 1908 - 2004

    Candidly capturing fleeting moments of beauty among the seemingly ordinary happenings of daily life, Henri Cartier-Bresson's work is intuitive and observational. Initially influenced by the Surrealists' "aimless walks of discovery," he began shooting on his Leica while traveling through Europe in 1932, revealing the hidden drama and idiosyncrasy in the everyday and mundane. The hand-held Leica allowed him ease of movement while attracting minimal notice as he wandered in foreign lands, taking images that matched his bohemian spontaneity with his painterly sense of composition.

    Cartier-Bresson did not plan or arrange his photographs. His practice was to release the shutter at the moment his instincts told him the scene before him was in perfect balance. This he later famously titled "the decisive moment" — a concept that would influence photographers throughout the twentieth century. 

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135

Cardinal Pacelli in Montmarte, Paris, France

1938
Gelatin silver print, printed 1970s.
24 × 36.3 cm (9 1/2 × 14 1/4 in)
Signed in ink in the margin.

Estimate
£6,000 - 8,000 

Photographs

17 May 2012
London