Magnum Photos has been releasing some images online from their singular historic archives which is an incredible opportunity to study and learn from the masters in their catalog. These images by Henri Cartier-Bresson, some of which have not been widely published, provide a rich insight into his style and process.
BERLIN—Taxi drivers, 1931, Henri Cartier-Bresson © Magnum Photos
I am in awe of him, I am in absolute awe of him. Everyone is a Cartier-Bresson baby…I worship him.
-Richard Avedon.
PARIS—Bofinger restaurant, 1969. © Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos
Nothing worth knowing can be taught.
-Henri Cartier-Bresson
ACAPULCO, Mexico—A market, 1963. © Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos
You mustn’t want, you must be receptive. Don’t think even. The brain’s a bit dangerous.
-Henri Cartier-Bresson
PARIS—Café Flore, 1959. © Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos
I don’t consider myself a photographer, I am using a camera, but there are millions of photographers….I’m just a human being. Anyone that is sensitive is an artist.
-Henri Cartier-Bresson
NEW YORK CITY—A football game at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, 1947. © Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos
Photography is nothing–it’s life that interests me.
– Henri Cartier-Bresson
NEW YORK CITY—Downtown, 1947. © Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos
They . . . asked me:
‘How do you make your pictures?’ I was puzzled . . .
I said, ‘I don’t know, it’s not important.’
-Henri Cartier-Bresson
VILLAGE OF BRANGUES, France—French writer and diplomat Paul Claudel, 1945. © Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos
In a portrait, I’m looking for the silence in somebody.
-Henri Cartier-Bresson
AHMEDABAD, GUJARAT, India—The Rangwala retail and wholesale cloth market, 1966. © Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos
Actually, I’m not all that interested in the subject of photography. Once the picture is in the box, I’m not all that interested in what happens next. Hunters, after all, aren’t cooks.
-Henri Cartier-Bresson
NAPLES, Italy—1960. © Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos
And no photographs taken with the aid of flash light, either, if only out of respect for the actual light – even when there isn’t any of it.
-Henri Cartier-Bresson – “The Decisive Moment”
ELEUSIS, Greece—1953. © Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos
There is no closed figure in nature. Every shape participates with another. No one thing is independent of another, and one thing rhymes with another, and light gives them shape.
-Henri Cartier-Bresson
thank you for this post-
bresson is an absolute master and you compile his images/quotes so masterfully too!
thanks, cmv. checked out your flickr page and really like your work.
great post – my fave photog as well. spent a disproportionately large amount of time deconstructing his images during my first year of teaching photography to myself. thanks for the heads up – will definitely check these out again!
incidentally, found this to be an fun pair of images:
http://www.magnumphotos.com/Archive/C.aspx?VP3=ViewBox_VPage&VBID=2K1HZOM4D0FWX&IT=ZoomImage01_VForm&IID=2S5RYDIXKWQI&PN=88&CT=Search
photo of him taking that photo:
http://www.magnumphotos.com/Archive/C.aspx?VP3=ViewBox_VPage&VBID=2K1HZOM4D0FWX&IT=ZoomImage01_VForm&IID=2TYRYDOIQK79&PN=79&CT=Search
thanks, tim. i’ve always been a student of his and it’s amazing how i can still learn from him. i’ve been culling tons of his work from the magnum archives and will be posting more of his work, including many i’ve never seen.
stay tuned!
doug