Henri Cartier-Bresson's photography came to define the 20th century. This book tells his life story through his images; all the major events from his youth to his death in 2004 are described, contextualized and analysed in light of his photographic work.
Born in 1908 in France, Henri Cartier-Bresson is considered to be the father of modern photojournalism. Early on he adopted the versatile 35mm format and helped develop the popular "street photography" style, influencing generations of photographers that followed. In his own words, he expressed that "the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the master of the instant which, in visual terms, questions and decides simultaneously. . . . It is by economy of means that one arrives at simplicity of expression." In 1947 Cartier-Bresson founded Magnum Photos with four other photographers. August 22 will be the 100th anniversary of his birth.
The official publication celebrating Magnum Photos’ 70th anniversary with a fresh and insightful view of Magnum’s history and archive, accompanying a landmark exhibition showing in New York at the International Center of Photography in 2017 before touring worldwide In this landmark photography publication and accompanying exhibition celebrating the 70th anniversary of the renowned photo agency, Clément Chéroux and Clara Bouveresse demonstrate how Magnum Photos owes its preeminence to the ability of its photographers to encompass and navigate the points between photography as art object and photography as documentary evidence. Magnum Manifesto is organized into three parts: Part 1, Human Rights and Wrongs (1947-1968), views the Magnum archive through a humanist lens, focusing on postwar ideals of commonality and utopianism. Part 2, An Inventory of Differences (1969-1989), shows a world fragmenting, with a focus on subcultures, minorities, and outsiders. Part 3, Stories About Endings (1990-present day), charts the ways in which Magnum photographers have captured—and continue to capture—a world in flux and under threat. Featuring both group and individual projects, this volume includes magazine spreads, newspaper features, and letters, putting some of the world’s most recognizable images in creative context. Magnum Manifesto is an expertly curated, essential collection of images and commentary.
PhotoWork is a collection of interviews by forty photographers about their approach to making photographs and, more importantly, a sustained body of work. Curator and lecturer Sasha Wolf was inspired to seek out and assemble responses to these questions after hearing from countless young photographers about how they often feel adrift in their own practice, wondering if they are doing it the "right" way. The responses, from both established and newly emerging photographers, reveal there is no single path.
Photographs have a strange and powerful way of shaping the way we see the world and influencing our perceptions of reality. To demonstrate the unique and profound influence on culture and society that photographs have, Photo Icons puts the most important landmarks in the history of photography under the microscope.
The first visual chronicle of a little-known chapter in the career of Henri Cartier-Bresson—one of the great photographers of the twentieth century. In December 1948, Henri Cartier-Bresson traveled to China at the request of Life magazine. He wound up staying for ten months and captured some of the most spectacular moments in China’s history: he photographed Beijing in “the last days of the Kuomintang,” and then headed back to Shanghai, where he bore witness to the new regime’s takeover. Moreover, in 1958, Henri Cartier-Bresson was one of the first Western photographers to go back to China to explore the changes that had occurred over the preceding decade. The “picture stories” he sent to Magnum and Life on a regular basis played a key role in Westerners’ understanding of Chinese political events. Many of these images are among the best-known and most significant photographs in Cartier-Bresson’s oeuvre; his empathy with the populace and sense of responsibility as a witness making them an important part of his legacy. Henri Cartier-Bresson: China 1948-1949, 1958 allows these photographs to be reexamined along with all of the documents that were preserved: the photographer’s captions and comments, contact sheets, and abundant correspondence, as well as the published versions that appeared in both American and European magazines. A welcome addition to any photography lover’s bookshelf, this is an exciting new volume on one of the twentieth century’s most important photographers.
Presented for the first time in English, this volume brings together twelve notable interviews and conversations with Henri Cartier-Bresson carried out between 1951 and 1998. While many of us are acquainted with his images, there are so few texts available by Cartier-Bresson on his photographic process. These verbal, primary accounts capture the spirit of the master photographer and serve as a lasting document of his life and work, which has inspired generations of photographers and artists. Here, Cartier-Bresson speaks passionately, with metaphors and similes, about the world and photography. A man of principles shaped by the evolving eras of the twentieth century, his major influences included Surrealism, European politics of the 1930s and '40s, the Second World War, and his experiences with Magnum as cofounder and reporter. This book illuminates his thoughts, personality, and reflections on a seminal career. In his own words: [Photography] is a way of questioning the world and questioning yourself at the same time. . . . It entails a discipline. For me, freedom is a basic frame of reference, and inside that frame are all the possible variations. Everything, everything, everything. But it is within a frame. The important thing is the sense of limit. And visually, it is the sense of form. Form is important. The structure of things. The space.