Henri Cartier Bresson
Henri Cartier Bresson was a french photographer known as the 'father of photojournalism' He received a 35mm format camera at a young age which helped to develop his body of work regarding street photography. He has helped to develop the 'street photography style' that has influenced generations of photographers who have followed. He is considered as one of the major artists of the 20th century.
Early LifeBorn and brought up in France Henri Cartier Bresson was the eldest of five. He was raised in a wealthy family which meant his parents were able to provide him financial support to develop his interest in photography. At a young age he aquired a box brownie, which is a simple camera that he used to take holiday snapshots, he then later experimented with a 3x4inch view camera. His father assumed he would take up the family buiseness but Cartier- Bresson was strong willed but upset by this prospect.
ExperimentsAlthough Cartier-Bresson became less interested in is Lhotes approach to art, his vigorous training would later help him to resolve problems within the art and photography field for example being able to compose an image. During the surrealist movenment Cartier-Bresson started socialising with surrealists which led him onto being very interested in the 'surrealist movement's linking of the sbconcious and the immediate to their work' Here, Peter Galassi explains.
"The Surrealists approached photography in the same way that Aragon and Breton...approached the street: with a voracious appetite for the usual and unusual...The Surrealists recognized in plain photographic fact an essential quality that had been excluded from prior theories of photographic realism. They saw that ordinary photographs, especially when uprooted from their practical functions, contain a wealth of unintended, unpredictable meaning" Although Cartier-Bresson matured artistically in a culturally stimulating environment he could not express his ideas properly in his paintings, because he was so fustrated he eventually destroyed the majority of his work. He then went to university where he studied english, art and literatue. |
StudiesCartier-Bresson was introduced by his Uncle Louis, a gifted painted about oil painting. He was fortunate to be given lessons by him but this was sadly cut short as his Uncle Louis died in World War 1. At the age of 20 he entered a private school art school and the Lhote Gallery, which was a parisian studio artists such as cubist painter and sculpture Andre Lhote has worked in. Cartier-Bresson also studied painting at this time. He was often taken to art galleries in Paris such as The Louvre and also contempary galleries to study a mixture of artists. Cartier-Bresson often regarded Lhote, his teacher of 'photography without a camera'
From painting to photographyAfter returning to France Cartier-Bresson he became very inspired by a photograph taken by a hungarian photojournalist, Martin Munkacsi of three naked young african boys running into the lake tanganyika in African. This photograph was apparenly what caused Cartier-Bresson to stop painting and turn to photography. He said ' I suddenly understood a photograph could fix eternity in a instant' He therefore bought a Leica camera in Marseilles that would accompany him for many years.
ExhibitionsCartire-Bressons photographs were first exhibited in New York, 1932 and then in Madrid not long after. He met two photographers and shared a studio with them in 1930's, five years later he was asked to exhibit alongside another photographer in New York. In his later life his photography took him to many places such as China, Mexico Canada, United States, Japan, India and the sovient union.
StyleHenri Cartier Bresson's work explores all sides of life. Whilst he captures precious and valuable moments of everyday life he also gives a real insight to everyday life, something truthful yet visually compelling.
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Here are a collection of some of his images
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