Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bressonwas a French humanist photographer considered the master of candid photography, and an early user of 35 mm film. He helped develop street photography, and approvingly cited a notion of the inevitability of a decisive moment, a term adopted as the title for his first major book. His work has influenced many photographers...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionPhotographer
Date of Birth22 August 1908
CountryFrance
photography mean expression
Of all the means of expression, photography is the only one that fixes a precise moment in time.
photography heart eye
To photograph: it is to put on the same line of sight the head, the eye and the heart.
inspiration reality thinking
Poetry is the essence of everything, and it’s through deep contact with reality and living fully that you reach poetry. Very often I see photographers cultivating the strangeness or awkwardness of a scene, thinking it is poetry. No. Poetry is two elements which are suddenly conflict — a spark between two elements. But it’s given very seldom, and you can’t look for it. It’s like if you look for inspiration. No, it just comes by enriching yourself and living.
photography eye essence
Above all, I craved to seize the whole essence, in the confines of one single photograph, of some situation that was in the process of unrolling itself before my eyes.
photography important leica
Photography has not changed since its origin except in its technical aspects, which for me are not important.
attitude moving world
For the world is movement, and you cannot be stationary in your attitude toward something that is moving.
photography believe discovery
I believe that, through the act of living, the discovery of oneself is made concurrently with the discovery of the world around us.
photography expression organization
The simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as the precise organization of forms which gives that event its proper expression... In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject. The little human detail can become a leitmotif.
photography art creativity
The creative act lasts but a brief moment, a lightning instant of give-and-take, just long enough for you to level the camera and to trap the fleeting prey in your little box.
photography drawing care
All I care about these days is painting — photography has never been more than a way into painting, a sort of instant drawing.
variation strict
Freedom for me is a strict frame, and inside that frame are all the variations possible.
photography skins trying
The most difficult thing for me is a portrait. You have to try and put your camera between the skin of a person and his shirt.
photography artist portraits
It seems dangerous to be a portrait artist who does commissions for clients because everyone wants to be flattered, so they pose in such a way that there's nothing left of truth.
photography mean expression
As far as I am concerned, taking photographs is a means of understanding which cannot be separated from other means of visual expression. It is a way of shouting, of freeing oneself, not of proving or asserting one's own originality. It is a way of life.