The French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004).
short film about Cartier-Bresson’s work
The Decisive Moment
He discovered that the camera could give him ‘instants’, moments captured in a way that used the camera to its best advantage.
Photojournalism
Bresson has been described as the ‘father of modern photojournalism’. Along with several other photographers, he founded the influential Magnum Photos agency in 1947.
His approach was simple. Using the fixed lens camera popular
amongst the early Magnum photographers, Cartier-Bresson tried to make himself invisible; he tried to not be part of the scene or affect the image with his presence and waited for ‘the decisive moment’. Many of his images are successful because of his ability to time when to press the shutter. Cartier-Bresson didn’t have motor drives giving 12 frames a second or blitz whole rolls of film through the camera – he waited until it felt that something was about to happen
and caught it as it happened.
“Photography is not like painting. There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative.”
(Cartier-Bresson interview, Washington Post 1957)
Art Photography
Cartier-Bresson is an example of a successful photographer who always saw himself as an artist. He was a talented painter who discovered photography in his mid thirties. Interestingly, he returned to drawing rather than photography in the last 10 years of his life. In an article included in the collection The Mind’s Eye: Writings on Photography and Photographers (2004), Cartier-Bresson discusses the issue of creativity relative to the camera:
“In photography creation is a quick business – pulling the camera up to the eye line of fire, suddenly with that economical little box whatever it was that surprised you, collecting it in mid air, without tricks, without letting it get away. You are making a painting at the same time that you are take a photo. That moment, that fraction of a second is valuable for freshness of its impression – but does it preclude a more studied experience? Whether you are on the move or on the same spot in order to show a country you have to establish a close working relationship, to be supported by a human community. Living takes time, roots form slowly. Thus that fraction of a moment can be the fruit of a long acquaintance or one of surprise.”