Henri Cartier-Bresson's Early Photography Style

Henri Cartier-Bresson’s Early Photography Style

Henri Cartier-Bresson said that he adored shooting photographs, and that he almost enjoyed the shooting of images more than he did the process of developing them and showing them to people. He compared his relationship to photography to that of a hunter, but a vegetarian hunter. He enjoys the shooting, but not the part that comes after that.

Later when he purchased his first 35mm Leica camera, he fell in love with the simple way the camera worked and the results that it gave him. This would eventually define his style of work; he didn’t care for developmental manipulation before, during, or after the development process. He didn’t like messing with the lighting, any dark room effects, or even cropping. He was essentially a photography purist. If you can’t make the shot right the first time, do not take it.

When he was out shooting, his equipment load was lighter than one might expect. He only took with him his camera, and one or two additional lenses depending on the subject he would be shooting, but that was it. He was fairly simple in his approach to photography, he didn’t want to deal with all the extra equipment of changing things when he was shooting his pictures, and he especially didn’t want to deal with any of the fuss when it came to developmental manipulation.

He continued working, and showed his art in various exhibitions in places such as Mexico, New York, and even over in Europe. He early photography work showed potential of being a great street photographer or of a blooming photojournalist.

Biography.com Editors. "Henri Cartier-Bresson." Bio.com. Accessed April 29, 2016. http://www.biography.com/people/henri-cartier-bresson-9240139.

International Work

International Work

After the end of WWI, Henri Cartier-Bresson traveled east and ended up spending a lot of time in India. He ended up meeting Mahatma Gandhi and photographing him not too long before his death in 1948. His photographs of Gandhi and then the effect his death had on India became some of the most sought after photographs; eventually they went to become one of Time Magazine’s most prized collections.

            After catching the travel bug, Cartier-Bresson continued to move eastward and ended up traveling through most of China documenting along the way. Every country he went to, he documented what he saw with his camera. He wanted to show the joys and suffering of people in foreign countries. He wanted to show these hidden gems of the world to those who would not usually get a chance to see these places. He traveled to places that some could only dream of seeing before he went and photographed these mysterious places, and they became no longer quite so mysterious.

            His work took him to several places to document the tragedy that humanity was facing. He documented the Spanish Civil War, the Chinese Revolution, and other various times of sorrow around the world. He didn’t only document the sorrow; he also documented the joyous moments as well. He was photographed George IV’s coronation and even American icon Marilyn Monroe. His work covered a wide range of subjects, but it was still all about showing society what was going on around them, both happy and sad.

Biography.com Editors. "Henri Cartier-Bresson." Bio.com. Accessed April 29, 2016. http://www.biography.com/people/henri-cartier-bresson-9240139.

Henri Cartier-Bresson and Photojournalism

Henri Cartier-Bresson and Photojournalism 

            Aside from changing photography with the decisive moment and the golden ratio, Henri Cartier-Bresson was a humanist photographer. His street photography was intended to show people what was going on around in the world around them and evoke an emotional response. Even though that is the goal of most photographers, being a humanist photographer meant they wanted to show people what happened in places that they couldn’t see. Many would travel to different countries and show what was happening in smaller and poorer countries. It showed the extreme gap between the wealthy and those living in poverty.

            When journalism began, it was just text, there were no pictures. Then came the drawings, and those helped to illustrate things, but it was never really an in-the-moment type of image. With the addition of photography to journalism, photographers were able to capture live images of what was happening in the news and allowed those who might not be able to regularly see what happened a glimpse into the things going on. Instead of just reading about a tragic event, or hearing about it in neighborhood gossip, if the photojournalists were there, they were able to capture the tragedy on film for all to see and fully understand what happened. It made the reality of what was happening during WWI that much more real to the people who were at home waiting on those at the battle front to return. They were able to know the conditions that the soldiers, sometimes their loved ones, were facing over seas.

Henri Cartier-Bresson, the Artist Before the Photographer

Henri Cartier-Bresson, the Artist Before the Photographer

            Before he was Henri Cartier-Bresson the Photographer, he was experimenting with various other styles of art as well. Cartier-Bresson was always interested in different kinds of creative outlets when he was younger.  He originally started with music, but eventually went into different kinds of fine arts. He was interested in sketching, painting, and eventually photography. His Uncle Louis is the one who introduced him to oil painting and was giving him lessons. Unfortunately his uncle died in World War I and could no longer continue giving young Cartier-Bresson lessons in oil painting. He continued to practice and experiment with sketching.

            For his education, he attended a private art school led by André Lhote, who was a cubist painter and sculptor. Lhote wanted to combine the cubists’ approach to art with the traditional methods of classical art. Cartier-Bresson also learned more about painting from society portraitist Jacques Émile Blanche. Lhote took the classes to the Louvre to experience classical art and galleries to experience contemporary art. Henri Cartier-Bresson found himself admiring the work of Jan van Eyck and Masaccio, and refers to Lhote as his teacher on photography without a camera.  

            After finishing school, Cartier-Bresson realized the intense and strict structure he had been under while studying under Lhote, actually helped him when it came to problem solving and composing his later work, he especially found the sketching helped him when composing a photograph. He went on to meet several surrealist painters and photographers, and he experimented with the surrealist style, but he didn’t like it and ended up destroying all of his early work.

Galassi, Peter, and Henri Cartier-Bresson. Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Early Work. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1987.

Magnum Photo

Magnum Photo

            When photojournalism was just getting its start, when a photographer sold a photo to a magazine, such as Life Magazine or Time Magazine, they no longer had the right to that photograph. How it was used, how it was reproduced, etc. was all up to the company that bought the photo. Realizing something was off, Henri Cartier-Bresson and a few others set out to do something about it. They realized that the people in journalism did not understand what it meant to be a photographer, or what it meant to go spend you life, taking photographs and losing all the rights to an image once it was sold to a publication.

In 1947, Henri Cartier-Bresson along with Robert Capa, David Seymour, William Vandivert, and George Rodger founded Magnum Photo, a co-op helping photographers to keep their rights of their photos after giving them to magazines and newspapers. It was a program run by photographers, for photographers. They would split photo assignments between the members taking them to various countries all around the world. And when they returned and sold their photos to different publications, they still maintained the rights to the photographs, they kept some control of what was done with the negatives and what happened to the photograph.

Another part of Magnum Photo’s purpose was to use photography as a service to the communities around them. They wanted people to know what was going on around them, and while they could read about it in the newspapers and magazines, being able to see it in photographs was a complete different story. Reading about an event and actually seeing images from the event can completely change the perception someone develops and change what they feel about it.

"Magnum Photos." Magnum Photos. Accessed May 02, 2016. http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3.