Henri Cartier-Bresson

One of the most famous books in the history of photography, this volume assembles Cartier-Bresson's best work from his early years.

The Decisive Moment

Michael L. Sand

The first compilation of writings by a master of photography. One of the leading lights in photography of the twentieth century, Henri Cartier-Bresson is also a shrewd observer and critic. His writings on photography and photographers, which have appeared sporadically over the past forty-five years, are gathered here for the first time. Several have never before appeared in English. The Mind's Eye features Cartier-Bresson's famous text on "the decisive moment" as well as his observations on Moscow, Cuba, and China during turbulent times, which ring with the same immediacy and visual intensity that he brings to his photography. Cartier-Bresson remains as direct and insightful as ever in his writings. His commentary on photographer friends he has known-including Robert Capa, André Kertész, Ernst Haas, and Sarah Moon-reveal the impassioned and compassionate vision for which Cartier-Bresson is beloved.

Writings on Photography and Photographers

The Mind's Eye

Presented for the first time in English, this volume brings together twelve notable interviews and conversations with Henri Cartier-Bresson carried out between 1951 and 1998. While many of us are acquainted with his images, there are so few texts available by Cartier-Bresson on his photographic process. These verbal, primary accounts capture the spirit of the master photographer and serve as a lasting document of his life and work, which has inspired generations of photographers and artists. Here, Cartier-Bresson speaks passionately, with metaphors and similes, about the world and photography. A man of principles shaped by the evolving eras of the twentieth century, his major influences included Surrealism, European politics of the 1930s and '40s, the Second World War, and his experiences with Magnum as cofounder and reporter. This book illuminates his thoughts, personality, and reflections on a seminal career. In his own words: [Photography] is a way of questioning the world and questioning yourself at the same time. . . . It entails a discipline. For me, freedom is a basic frame of reference, and inside that frame are all the possible variations. Everything, everything, everything. But it is within a frame. The important thing is the sense of limit. And visually, it is the sense of form. Form is important. The structure of things. The space.

Henri Cartier-Bresson, Interviews and Conversations, 1951-1998

Considerado como uno de los fotografos mas influyentes de nuestro tiempo, Henri Cartier-Bresson elevo la practica del snap shotting a la categoria de arte disciplinar. Critico y observador penetrante, sus escritos acerca de la teoria y practica de la fotografia han ejercido una influencia decisiva en los fotografos contemporaneos. Autor de diferentes libros y articulos periodisticos, que han aparecido publicados de manera dispersa, Fotografiar del natural constituye la primera recopilacion en un unico volumen de sus textos mas emblematicos, entre los que se cuenta "El instante decisivo," uno de sus escritos mas famosos y que constituyo un punto y aparte en su carrera, o "Los europeos." Otros articulos aqui reunidos son sus relatos de viajes a Moscu o China, o los que dedica a sus amigos Andre Breton, Alberto Giacometti o Jean Renoir, que destilan la misma intensidad e inmediatez visual que caracteriza toda su obra fotografica.

Fotografiar del natural

Published to coincide with a first Fondation exhibition to be drawn entirely from the twentieth-century photographer's archives, a volume of famous and lesser-known works is comprised of pieces that most represent Cartier-Bresson's intentions.

The Portraits of Henri Cartier-Bresson

An Inner Silence

Henri Cartier-Bresson reveals--as only a few great artists have done consistently--the richness, the sensibilities, and the varieties of the human experience in the twentieth century. This volume of Aperture's Masters of Photography series confirms the genius of the photographer whose pictures with the new, smaller hand-held cameras and faster films defined the idea of "the decisive moment" in photography. Cartier-Bresson's imagery is intimate, but it is also utterly respectful of his subjects. In his wide travels throughout the world, he has captured universal meanings through the glimpses into the lives of individuals in scores of countries. Each photograph is in itself a masterpiece of dramatic form; taken together, Cartier-Bresson's works constitute a personal history of epic scope. Henri Cartier-Bresson presents forty-two of the artist's photographs, each recognized a a masterpiece of the medium. In addition, Cartier-Bresson offers a brief statement of his own artistic ethos, his striving for the spontaneity through intuition that imbues his work.

Jean Clair

Henri Cartier-Bresson dio carta de nobleza al reportaje fotográfico. Anteriormente, nadie habia tratado un tema, ya fuera histórico o relativo a la vida cotidiana, con tanta inteligencia en el análisis, cuidado en la visión y equilibrio en la composición. Esta constante armonía entre la forma y el fondo, así como la destacable economía de los medios utilizados sitúan de forma indiscutible a Henri Cartier-Bresson entre los grandes clásicos de la fotografía. Jean Clair hace la presentación del libro, que contiene 64 imágenes en blanco y negro, las notas biográficas y bibliográficas, la referencia de las principales exposiciones y la filmografía.

Ernst Hans Gombrich

Over the last half century Henri Cartier-Bresson has photographed some of the most famous icons of the twentieth century, those few people among millions whose images pass into history. Tete a Tete is a remarkable arrangement of his most memorable portraits, including Pablo Picasso, Truman Capote, Marilyn Monroe, Lucien Freud, William Faulkner, Robert Kennedy, Che Guevara, Martin Luther King Jr., Coco Chanel, and the Dalai Lama. Beyond these famous names there are also anonymous portraits, chosen for their striking and unusual features, and a selection of pencil drawings, including a self-portrait. Cartier-Bresson supervised the design of the book and the juxtaposition of all the photographs. The result is a distinguished collection of his work, diverse in its range of extraordinary and ordinary personalities from the 1930s to the 1990s. Tete a Tete reveals Cartier-Bresson as a photographer who is as skillful in recording the subtleties of the individual portrait as he is renowned for his masterful ability to capture the decisive moment.

Portraits

Tête À Tète

Karar Anı

Tête À Tête

Jean Clair (pseud.)

Tls review 5/1/98, Transl. fr/French, Pub. 1st in UK by Thames & Hudson, Exhib. catalog.

Europeans

L'Immaginario dal vero

The first compilation of writings by a master of photography. One of the leading lights in photography of the twentieth century, Henri Cartier-Bresson is also a shrewd observer and critic. His writings on photography and photographers, which have appeared sporadically over the past forty-five years, are gathered here for the first time. Several have never before appeared in English. "The Mind's Eye" features Cartier-Bresson's famous text on "the decisive moment" as well as his observations on Moscow, Cuba, and China during turbulent times, which ring with the same immediacy and visual intensity that he brings to his photography. Cartier-Bresson remains as direct and insightful as ever in his writings. His commentary on photographer friends he has known-including Robert Capa, Andre Kertesz, Ernst Haas, and Sarah Moon-reveal the impassioned and compassionate vision for which Cartier-Bresson is beloved.

Henri Cartier-Bresson is one of this century's leading photographers. His earliest images are of Europe in the 1930s and '40s. Here is a magnificent compilation of the world-renowned photographer's work that truly captures his famous "decisive moments" through people and places rich in beauty as well as turmoil.

Henri Cartier-Bresson: Europeans

The World of Henri Cartier Bresson

Photoportraits

From One China to the Other

Gathers portraits of Gandhi, Calder, Ernst, Mountbatten, Genet, de Kooning, Malcolm X, Huxley, Pinter, Picasso, Miro, Colette, Faulkner, Matisse, Camus, Jung, Stravinsky, and Chagall

For more than 45 years, Henri Cartier-Bresson's camera has glorified the decisive moment in images of unique beauty and lyrical compassion. From the cities of war-torn Europe to the rural landscape of the American South, this retrospective volume shows the lifework of a legendary photographer. 155 duotone illustrations.

Henri Cartier-Bresson

About

Books

Join the club