To view the Condition Report please Sign In
Sign InThe Photographers' Gallery, London, 1998
B. Newhall and Kirstein, The Photographs of Henri Cartier-Bresson, p. 16
Cartier-Bresson, The Decisive Moment, pl. 12
Ewing and W. M. Hunt, The Unseen Eye: Photographs from the Unconscious, pp. 34-35
Galassi, Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Early Work, p. 107
Galassi, Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century, p. 95
New York Graphic Society, Henri Cartier-Bresson: Photographer, pl. 20
Steidl, Henri Cartier-Bresson Scrapbook, p. 131
Thames & Hudson, Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Man, the Image and the World, pl. 102
Yale University Press, The Art of Photography, 1839-1989, pl. 280
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.
View More Works
