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Announcement: Henri Cartier-Bresson Dies; Age 95

Henri Cartier-Bresson passed away at age 95 on August 3rd and was buried on August 5th in France. HCB was one of the most influencial photographers of the 20th Century and co-founded Magnum Photos with Robert Capa [noted war photographer killed in Indochina in 1954], David Seymour and George Rodger. The Father of Photo-Journalism, he was The Grand Master of the candid using nothing more than a basic Leica "Thread Mount" with an uncanny knack of being in the right place at the right time, pressing the shutter release at exactly "The Decisive Moment," his concise concept of candid work that became the title of the 1952 book of his photographs. HCB was "determined to trap life, to preserve life in the act of living." His war photography included the Spanish and Mexican Civil Wars, WWII and the communist revolution in China. During WWI, Cartier-Bresson was captured by the Germans in 1940. He escaped several years later and witnessed the liberation of Paris. Cartier-Bresson was also the first Western photographer allowed into the Soviet Union in 1954, a year following Stalin's death.

While legendary for his street candids, photo-journalism and war photography, HCB was also a consummate portraitist. His portraiture of the rich and famous included Jean-Paul Sartre, Carson McCullers, Barbara Hepworth, Henri Matisse, Edith Piaf and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

Born in 1908, HCB was an artist that took up photography in 1930 to aid himself with his art, and bought his first Leica in 1932. It became an "extension of his eye" for the next 42 years, and in 1974 he returned to his drawing and painting.

His legacy is an example of the phenomenal photography that can be done using a very simple, manually operated camera. He will live on in the thousands of superb photographs that do indeed "trap life, to preserve life in the act of living."

-- John Lind

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August 04, 2004

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August 05, 2004

I read that he recently confessed to be dismissed from a group of photojournalists awaiting for a shot.

None of them, with their huge and latest equipment, were able to recognize this quiet and sensible man.

"The photo is to me a spontaneous impulse of a perpetual visual attention, that catches the moment and its eternity"

--Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004)

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August 05, 2004

I wonder if he did his candid work today whether the sweet young couple at the cafe table would sue him for invasion of privacy, or if the parents of the grinning little boy with the wine bottle would nail him for stalking their son. A woman at a local shopping mall was threatened with arrest recently after she took pictures of HER OWN children.

I am thankful for C-B and his wonderful portraits of humankind. He was a brave soul in a time of real danger and real threats.

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August 11, 2004