Henri Cartier-Bresson Biography

Born in Chanteloup, Seine-et-Marne, Cartier-Bresson developed early on a strong fascination with painting, with a particular interest in Surrealism. In 1932, after spending a year in the Ivory Coast, Cartier-Bresson discovered the Leica, his camera of choice ever since, and began a life-long passion for photography.

In 1933, he had his first exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery, in New York . His photographs were subsequently shown at the Ateneo club in Madrid , Spain . He pursued his photographic career in Eastern Europe and Mexico , later making films with Jean Renoir, Jacques Becker and André Zvoboda, and a documentary on the hospitals of Republican Spain, Victoire de la Vie ( Return to Life ).

Taken prisoner of war in 1940, he escaped on his third attempt in 1943 and subsequently set up an underground organization to assist prisoners and escapees. He also worked during this period for Editions Braun, making portraits of artists such as Matisse, Rouault, Braque, Bonnard, and Claudel. In 1945, he photographed the Liberation of Paris with a group of professional journalists before filming the documentary Le Retour ( The Return ). Then, he spent a year in the United States putting together a "posthumous" exhibition that was initiated by curators at New York 's Museum of Modern Art who believed he was dead.

In 1947, he founded Magnum Photos with Robert Capa, George Rodger, David “Chim” Seymour and William Vandivert, then spent three years traveling in the East. He was in India for the murder of Mahatma Gandhi, in Indonesia during its independence and, in 1949, in China during the last six months of the Kuomintang and the first six months of the People's Republic of China . In 1952, he returned to Europe where he published his first book, Images à la Sauvette (The Decisive Moment) and, in 1954, was the first foreign photographer admitted into the USSR .

Cartier-Bresson subsequently traveled to China , Cuba , Mexico , Canada , the United States , India , and Japan among other countries. In 1968, he began to curtail his photographic activities, preferring to concentrate on drawing and painting.

He is best known for his concept of the “decisive moment” in photography. As he explained, "for me the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the master of the instant which, in visual terms, questions and decides simultaneously. In order to ‘give a meaning' to the world, one has to feel involved in what one frames through the viewfinder. This attitude requires concentration, discipline of mind, sensitivity, and a sense of geometry. It is by economy of means that one arrives at simplicity of expression.”

Cartier-Bresson was the recipient of an extraordinary number of prizes, awards and honorary doctorates. He died on 3 August 2004 in Cereste, in the southeast of France , a few weeks short of his 96th birthday.

For more information on his work