Henri Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier-Bresson

A French photographer born in 1908 it is almost impossible to consider the development of modern photography without his presence.

Originally training as an artist and attending Cambridge University to study art, literature and English (in which he was fluent), he discovering photography in the 1920's and settling into the early useage of 35mm film. He acquired a Leica camera in 1931 which he used continuously for many years, even burying it during the war (he served three years as a POW under the German Occupation of France) digging it up once the war ended.

His first exhibition was in New York in 1933 and that later transferred at Madrid. He was heavily influenced by his study of, and close contact with, surrealists during the 1920's and realised very early on the importance of candid, street photography which became his stock in trade. The informality and unexpected actions of people was important to him. Throughout his life Henri was a left leaning humanist and worked with many of the French Communist party although he never joined the party himself. This often shows in the tenderness of his approach to people in his photographs.

MOMA mounted an exhibition after the war which had originally been conceived as a posthumous show following rumours of his death but became a celebrating retrospective.

He founded the Magnum agency with four other photographers in 1947 and achieved international recognition for his reportage of Ghandi's funeral in 1948.

In 1952 his book Images à la sauvette, published as The Decisive Moment in English but actually translating as Images on the Sly, brought to the fore his idea that, having seen a composition you wait for the key moment to press the shutter. Miss it and it has gone. His photograph Rue Mouffetard (below) taken in 1954 is often used as an example of this. The triumphant look on the boy's face sealing the deal with the photographer.

In later years he travelled widely but gave up photography to concentrate on drawing apart from a few private portraits. He died in 2004 at 95 and is buried in the local cemetery at Montjustin having left a lasting legacy of work and influence.