Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004) was a French photographer whose work is regarded as some of the most influential and revolutionary in history. He was the author of The Decisive Moment, a publication that influenced an abundance of famous photographers across the centuries, including Robert Capa and Steve McCurry.
He studied literature at Cambridge University before travelling to Africa in 1931 to photograph the bush. He then returned to Paris after contracting Blackwater fever. He spent his 40 year photography career travelling all over the world, spending a while in each location so as to immerse himself fully.
In 1940, he was taken prisoner by the Germans but escaped in 1943. The next year, he participated in an underground French photography project which sought to photograph the German occupation and retreat. In 1945, he made a film called Le Retour for the US Office of War Information which explored the return of prisoners of war to France.
Cartier-Bresson was always conscious of remaining hidden when taking his images – his style is concealed and not obvious to those he is photographing, in contrast to the work of William Klein. He once even covered the silver parts of his 35mm Leica with black tape to make it more invisible.
In 1947 – the same year his work was exhibited in a one-man exhibition in the New York City Museum of Modern Art – him and five others (including Robert Capa) founded the photographic agency Magnum Photos, which is still successful to this day.
After forming Magnum, Cartier-Bresson began to focus more and more on reportage photography, travelling to India, China, Indonesia and Egypt across the next three years. He devoted his later years to painting and drawing, as he felt that his medium (still imagery) was ultimately being superseded by television. He ‘abandoned his trademark Leica 35mm rangefinder camera in the 1970s to take up drawing and painting, declaring: “I have no interest in photography.”’ (https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/oct/21/henri-cartier-bresson-photographe-new-edition-french-photographer)
Criticism
I found an article written by someone only naming themselves as ‘Sebastian’ on the Streetbounty website. The article discusses the author’s struggles to ‘understand’ the ‘pedestal’ that Cartier-Bresson’s work is ‘lifted on’. He states that the images ‘lack the emotional value and are very technical’, mentioning the likelihood that many of them are staged – which would, of course, be entirely contradictory to his philosophy of ‘The Decisive Moment’. Through this, the article dissects the existence of so many interpretations of Cartier-Bresson’s work; that it is over-idolised and placed on an unrealistic pedestal, as well as being hypocritical. The author mentions that ‘[Cartier-Bresson’s] Street Photography doesn’t impress [him], but his documentary work and his work ethic surely do.’ This demonstrates that the author is sure to give credit where it is due and his argument throughout is not an unfounded one as he gives many examples.