Henri Cartier-Bresson - Photographs London Wednesday, November 2, 2011 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Peter Fetterman Gallery, Santa Monica

  • Literature

    P. Galassi, Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Early Work, New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1987, cover and p. 130; C. Fuentes, Henri Cartier-Bresson: Mexican Notebooks, New York: Thames & Hudson, 1995, p. 73; The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars, exh. cat., Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1995, pl. 41; J.P. Montier, Henri Cartier-Bresson and the Artless Art, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1996, pl. 13; P. Galassi, Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century, exh. cat.,
    Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2010, p. 99; Tête à Tête: Portraits by Henri Cartier-Bresson, New York: Bulfinch Press, pl. 30

  • 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. 

    View More Works

136

Calle Cuauhtemoctzin, Mexico City

1934
Gelatin silver print, printed post 1990s.
30 x 45 cm (11 3/4 x 17 3/4 in).
Signed in ink and copyright credit blindstamp in the margin.

Estimate
£7,000 - 9,000 

Photographs

3 November 2011
London