© Claire Yaffa, undated, Portrait of Henri Cartier-Bresson
“I was able to photograph Henri Cartier-Bresson because of the graciousness of Martine Franck. As I rang the bell to their apartment, overlooking the Tuileries, to say that I was nervous would be a complete understatement. The door opened for me and there was Martine — beautiful, warm and welcoming. She talked with me first and said no way should I use flash.
She then introduced me to Cartier-Bresson who was sitting at a table in their apartment. I was surprised there were no photographs of his or Martine’s on the walls, but there was the Leica camera next to him on the table. I asked if I could photograph them together and they graciously agreed. I witnessed the love and closeness they shared with one another.”
© Claire Yaffa, undated, Portrait of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Martine Franck
“They went on their terrace and when he was tired and had enough of me, he smiled and waved me away. He was tired when I was leaving and I took this photograph of him as he was rubbing his eyes.”
© Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1972, Telavi / Georgia (former Russia)
Visitors from the Kolkhoz celebrate St George’s Day near the Alaverdi Monastery.
This photograph is part of the exhibition ‘Henri Cartier-Bresson. The Compass in the Eye: America-India-Soviet Union’ at Kunsthaus Vienna, Austria (Nov. 17, 2011 - Feb. 26, 2012).
© Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1933, Andalusia / Spain
Drawn into the circle of the French Surrealists, Henri Cartier-Bresson came to share their belief in the capacity of photography to undermine accepted ideas about reality. In the early 1930s, he made an acclaimed series of photographs of the poor and the dispossessed in Italy, Spain, and Mexico. In making these images, Cartier-Bresson perfected his idea of the “decisive moment,” his characterization of the style that became his trademark.
“Above all,” he once said, “I craved to seize the whole essence, in the confines of a single photograph, of some situation that was in the process of unfolding itself before my eyes.” Here, the flattening effect of the camera has produced an unexpected image in which the boys seem to be enveloped in graffiti.
© Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1931, Berlin / Germany
Henri Cartier-Bresson - Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare, Paris, 1932 / VIDEO
Dr. Shana Gallagher-Lindsay and Dr. Beth Harris discuss one of Cartier-Bressons famous photographs.
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© Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1937, ‘Trafalgar Square on the day of George VI’s coronation’, London
“It is not the walls that make the city, but the people who live within them. The walls of London may be battered, but the spirit of the Londoner stands resolute and undismayed.” (George VI)
(thanks to / via: liquidnight)
© Henri Cartier-Bresson, April 1945, Dessau / Germany
At a transit camp for displaced persons, a woman who had been an informer for the Gestapo is denounced.
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