Pioneer photojournalist Henri Cartier-Bresson has died; "The Decisive Moment..."

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Dan C, Aug 4, 2004.

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  1. Dan C

    Dan C Forum Fotographer Thread Starter

    Location:
    The West
    Words cannot describe the impact Cartier-Bresson had on photography during the 20th century. His work has become part of our social landscape.
    The man was a master. RIP.

    Look at his work here:
    http://www.magnumphotos.com/c/


    http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040804/ap_en_ot/obit_cartier_bresson_21

    Photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson Dies

    1 hour, 20 minutes ago

    By JOCELYN GECKER, Associated Press Writer

    PARIS - Henri Cartier-Bresson, the Frenchman whose early dabblings with a Brownie box camera blossomed into celebrated lifetime of traveling the world to capture the human drama on film, has died at age 95.

    From Mahatma Gandhi's funeral to portraits of William Faulkner or Chinese revolutionaries, Cartier-Bresson was a pioneer in photojournalism whose pictures defined the mid-20th century and inspired generations of photographers. Yet he was famously averse to having his own picture taken and in later years turned away from photography to the love of his youth, painting.


    A statement from his family and Magnum, the photo agency that Cartier-Bresson co-founded, said he died Tuesday morning at his home in the southwestern Luberon region, and funeral services were held privately Wednesday in the nearby Alpes-de-Haute-Provence region. A memorial service is planned for early September, it said.


    "The world of photojournalism has lost its soul," Goksin Sipahioglu, the founder of Sipa photo agency, told France-Info radio.


    Gary Knight, managing director of VII, another photo agency, said Cartier-Bresson "defined photography at that crucial period when small cameras were coming into fashion and its entire nature was changing."


    Cartier-Bresson disdained artificial settings and said photographers should shoot accurately and quickly, seeking "the decisive moment" when the ultimate significance of a given situation is laid bare. He shot with a Leica, the quietest of cameras, working only with black and white film, and notably, without a flash. Limelight, he said, was a sure way to destroy a subject.


    To make the camera as unobtrusive as the human eye, he went so far as to tape over its silvery parts in black and would keep it hidden under a handkerchief until the critical moment. The aim was always to capture something of his subject's inner essence — to pinpoint "a relationship between the eye and the heart."


    "With the one eye that is closed, one looks within, with the other eye that is open, one looks without," he once said in a rare interview.


    Most of his international fame was generated from publication in leading magazines like Life, Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, and prestigious exhibitions, notably a 1947 one-man exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern Art.


    He was also fascinated by cinema, assisting French director Jean Renoir on the classic "The Rules of the Game" and making two notable documentaries of his own — one about medical aid to the loyalists in the Spanish Civil War and another about French prisoners of war returning home at the end of World War II.


    Cartier-Bresson was born Aug. 22, 1908, in Chanteloup outside Paris to a wealthy textile family.


    The eldest of three children, he was interested mainly in painting. At 20, he turned his back on the lucrative family business to study art.


    In 1930, with a box camera, he started dabbling in photography. Two years later, armed with his Leica, he traveled around Europe and West Africa, published photos in magazines and had his first exhibition in Madrid in 1933.


    Critics said his most brilliant photograph was "Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare," of a man leaping over a puddle and frozen in mid-air, his V-shaped shadow contrasting with the fence above the railroad tracks.


    "Rue Mouffetard," a poignant shot of a grinning youngster carrying two bottles of wine down the Left Bank market street, became one of Cartier-Bresson's most sought-after photos.


    At the outbreak of World War II, he was a corporal in a film and photo unit and was quickly taken prisoner. After nearly three years he escaped and made his way back to Paris where he divided his time between commercial photography and transporting ex-prisoners for the French underground.


    His pictures emerged as a stunning reportage of the underground resistance and the political drama of postwar Europe. In 1945, under the aegis of the U.S. Office of War Information, Cartier-Bresson directed "The Return," a highly praised documentary on homecoming French POWS.

    In 1947, he joined two of the other pre-eminent photographers of the time, Robert Capa and David Seymour, in founding Magnum, a ground-breaking photo agency.

    He continued to photograph, but turned away from the camera in the last 25 years of his life to rediscover painting. By 1988, he was spending most days sketching in pencil or charcoal at his Paris home or at his retreat in southern France.

    In 1937, Cartier-Bresson married a Javanese dancer, Ratna Mohini. He is survived by Martine Franck, whom he married in 1970, and their daughter, Melanie.
     
  2. Pug

    Pug The Prodigal Snob Returns!

    Location:
    Near Music Direct
    I always thought Cartier-Bresson was brilliant. Those of you unfamiliar with his work should check it out!
     
  3. b&w

    b&w Forum Resident

    Another bump to give thanks to the man and all the art and beauty he brought into the world. You owe it to yourself to check his work out.
     
  4. hullabaloo

    hullabaloo New Member

    Location:
    Oklahoma
    Very sad news. I was exposed to Cartier-Bresson's work at a very young age by a man that was very much inspired by him. His insight and ability to catch that decisive moment was simply amazing.

    Julie
     
  5. Ben Sinise

    Ben Sinise Forum Reticent

    Location:
    Sydney
    He leaves behind a fine body of work.
     
  6. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    I got a photo book of his about 4 years ago and it inspired me to get off my duff and get back shooting. (I was also inspired to move up to a Leica, much to the regret of my pocketbook....)

    RIP.
     
  7. GT40sc

    GT40sc Senior Member

    Location:
    Eugene, Oregon
    My father was a photo-journalist, and Cartier-Bresson was one of his greatest influences...

    a sad day. my soul is very low...

    peace to all,
     
  8. Ben Sinise

    Ben Sinise Forum Reticent

    Location:
    Sydney
    Are you talking vintage Leica?
     
  9. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    Vintage and new. I have 8 Leicas and 10 lenses. All HCB's fault.
     
  10. Ben Sinise

    Ben Sinise Forum Reticent

    Location:
    Sydney
    Wow Steve, you don't mess about do you!

    My uncle, who was a professional photographer at one stage, has an M3 that he just won't part with. The results he achieves with that ancient-looking piece are simply amazing for a camera that is 50 years old. Those lenses are a work of art.

    Don't have any Hasselblads lurking in the Hoffman toybox?
     
  11. Dan C

    Dan C Forum Fotographer Thread Starter

    Location:
    The West
    Forgive me, but I wanted to bump this thread so more people have a chance to enjoy Bresson's images at the Magnum site I linked early on.

    If you have some time to spare, please have a long look. It's good for the soul.
    They just don't make 'em like this anymore.

    Thanks,
    Dan C
     
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