Henri Cartier-Bresson Overview

Known for its reportage style and early connection to the rebelliousness of Surrealism, the work of Cartier-Bresson has always subverted narrative expectations. A reluctant and ambivalent scion of the bourgeoisie, Cartier-Bresson captured in photographs the plight of the very dispossessed, marginal,... [more]

Known for its reportage style and early connection to the rebelliousness of Surrealism, the work of Cartier-Bresson has always subverted narrative expectations. A reluctant and ambivalent scion of the bourgeoisie, Cartier-Bresson captured in photographs the plight of the very dispossessed, marginal, and illicit underclass shunned by his own socio-economic community. His venues ranged from Mexican flea markets and African street fairs to the Jewish ghettos of Eastern Europe. A sense of the photographer's visceral engagement with his subjects emerges from the natural, unposed moments he chooses to present them in. This technique, which he termed "incomplete adventures" or "happenings in the moment," originated with Cartier-Bresson and laid the foundation for the approach known as "the decisive moment," a style that transformed photojournalism to a high art. "The decisive moment" occurs in flashes during the everyday pursuits of work, play, and contemplation, and reveals an open sensuality which is not normally the prerogative of the outcast. Cartier-Bresson's use of the camera as an impassive and neutral third eye that captures the eccentricities of human behavior, established two central axioms in modern photography: one, a photograph can still be valid even if it is nothing more than a record of a particular fact or set of facts; and, two, a collection of such pictorial facts, accumulated without agenda, can express an extraordinarily personal artistic vision. [show less]