Overview

Henri Cartier-Bresson was perhaps the finest and most influential imagemaker of the 20th century, and his portraits are among his best-known work. Over a fifty-year period, he photographed some of the most eminent personalities of the era, as well as ordinary people, chosen as subjects because of their striking and unusual features. In 2003, the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, which was created to provide a permanent home for his collected works, opened in Paris. This book is published to coincide with the first exhibition at the Fondation that is drawn entirely from those archives, and it features both well-known images and previously unpublished portraits. Each photograph has been chosen because it perfectly embodies Cartier-Bresson's description of what he was attempting to communicate in his work: 'Above all I look for an inner silence. I seek to translate the personality and not an expression.' The portraits reproduced here - discreet, without artifice - confirm once more the singular gift of Cartier-Bresson, who instinctively knew in which revealing fraction of a second to click the shutter.

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9780500288757

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Reviews

'What an astonishing haul - and how gloriously they have been captured. Rembrandt would have loved this book' - Independent 'Another release of spellbinding images from the master's archive ... one gets from his images a real sense of curiosity about the human spirit' - Amateur Photographer 'Totally arresting and utterly beautiful' - Metro 'Relentlessly brilliant ... as I turn the pages of this book I experience a sort of quiet awe' - Black & White Photography

Highly recommended for all libraries.

Cartier-Bresson set out to unmask mysteries--the mystery of a photograph, of a human being who happened to be his subject that day and, perhaps, even of human connection itself.

Highly recommended for all libraries. Highly recommended for all libraries. The master of the decisive moment brought the same ability to capture the essence of a situation to his portraiture. Cartier-Bresson set out to unmask mysteries the mystery of a photograph, of a human being who happened to be his subject that day and, perhaps, even of human connection itself. The pose reflects nothing so much as motion stilled for a moment--and thereby, once caught on film, for an eternity. The master of the 'decisive moment' brought the same ability to capture the essence of a situation to his portraiture. Cartier-Bresson set out to unmask mysteries--the mystery of a photograph, of a human being who happened to be his subject that day and, perhaps, even of human connection itself.

Cartier-Bresson set out to unmask mysteries the mystery of a photograph, of a human being who happened to be his subject that day and, perhaps, even of human connection itself.

Author Information

Agnès Sire has been the director of the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris since its creation in 2003.

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