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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 779.092
EAN: 9780500286425
ISBN: 0500286426
Label: Thames & Hudson
Manufacturer: Thames & Hudson
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 432
Publication Date: November 27, 2006
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Studio: Thames & Hudson
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com Review:
Henri Cartier-Bresson spent four decades traveling the world as a photojournalist in search of what he called "the decisive moment"--the instant when visual harmony and human significance coalesce. Published in honor of his 95th birthday, Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Man, The Image & The World is a handsome volume that reproduces more than 600 photographs, film stills, and drawings and includes essays by art, photography, and film experts. Trained as a painter in his native France, Cartier-Bresson began his photography career during a trip to the Ivory Coast in 1931. After shooting his way through Europe, Mexico and the U.S., he became an assistant to filmmaker Jean Renoir and directed documentaries in support of the Spanish Civil War. Imprisoned by the Germans during World War II, he escaped to document the liberation of Paris. More than a quarter-century of magazine photography followed-including vivid glimpses of modern life in India, China and the Soviet Union-before he put aside his camera in favor of his sketchbook. Cartier-Bresson's ability to capture peak moments resulted in unforgettable single photographs, like that of a woman in a group of former concentration camp prisoners who suddenly recognizes her Gestapo informer and reaches out to hit her. His constant watchfulness led to images that capture fleeting emotion-lust, pride, despair, expectation, glee-on the faces of people going about their daily lives in grim cities, sleepy villages, and vast landscapes. Shaped by compassion and a self-effacing absence of personal judgment, these photographs reflect a worldview no longer fashionable but forever relevant to human understanding. Cathy Curtis
Product Description:
"A definitive catalogue….Once Cartier-Bresson photographed something or someone, you might as well have retired them as subjects."—Newsweek
Henri Cartier-Bresson was one of the finest image makers of our time. His extraordinary photographs were shaped by an eye and a mind legendary for their intelligent empathy and for their unerring ability to get to the heart of the matter.
This sumptuous collection of work by Cartier-Bresson is the ultimate look at his achievements. The book brims with classic photographs that have become icons of the medium, as well as rarely seen work from all periods of Cartier-Bresson's life, including a number of previously unpublished photographs and a generous selection of drawings, paintings, and film stills. The book also features telling personal souvenirs of his youth, his family, and the founding of Magnum.
This definitive collection of a master photographer's work will be an essential book for anyone interested in photography—indeed, for anyone interested in the people, places, and events of the past century. 600+ illustrations in color and duotone.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
First of all, I am surprised with the size and quality of the book. It is not hardcover, but the cover jacket is very well made. All pages are black and white, good quality art paper. The book consists of most Henri Cartier-Bresson works from 1930's to 70s. Amazingly it also consists of his work (painting and drawing) after he retired as photographer. It also has some interesting critiques and commentaries from his friends and scholars.
For people who does not know Henri, he is regarded as the father of street photography and photojournalism. He is one of the founder of highly respected Magnum photo agency. During his life, he works for magazine such as LIFE, Harpers Bazzaar, Vu, Regards, etc. In 1950, he wrote about his photography philosophy of Decisive Moment which means not only means capturing the significant moment, but also must be presented in the most artistic composition.
This is by far the most complete book about Henri Cartier-Bresson that I ever read, and I highly recommended for everybody who is interested on pursuing photojournalism or admirer of his body of work and life. Please check out more review at my blog radiantlite dot com.
Rating:  -
No words are needed for Cartier-Bresson. He is one of the foundations of modern photography.
As for the book, it has two very annoying problems.
1) Some of the best Cartier-Bresson pictures are printed across both pages nearly destroying the amazing composition of the pictures.
2) Some of other great pictures are printed in a 3x3 size, great for passport pictures but useless to the study of this great photographer.
The book has a very good compilation of the photographer's work, unfortunately it has these two issues which render the book above average but far-away from being GREAT!!!
Rating: -
I admire and love Henri Cartier-Bresson so much, the master not only in Photography, but also in the history of humanity. I believe in Buddhism so much. And So does Cartier-Bresson.
Cartier-Bresson spread his humanity and the love of the life to the whole world during not only the past 100 years, but also the years we will have.
Photography is just a kind of art to normal an artist. To Cartier-Bresson, it is the artless art.
Regarding this book, it is my first one about Cartier-Bresson, and I decide to buy more after I enjoyed this book.
If you are new to Cartier-Bresson, buy this one without hesitation. You will fall in love with the master just as I did.
If you know well about Cartier-Bresson, buy this one also. It is an overview of the master. You can get the information you need just in one book.
If you are an adorer of Cartier-Bresson, buy this one as a must. Do not need to say why, because it is about Henri Cartier-Bresson.
All in all, buy this book. Read, feel, and enjoy. Not only the photography, but also the life.
Rating:  -
The book is a testimony to the capabilities of Henri Cartier-Bresson as a photographer. With limited equipment, a camera and only one lens, he managed to capture an amazing range of emotions and phenomenon. Cartier-Bresson's work, which is amply documented in this book, also provides an example of "available light" photography.
My one complaint is the quality of reproduction of the photos is somewhat poor, though I am not sure whether this could have been remedied by the publishers
Rating: -
I put off buying this book as long as I could and eventually I did, having in the meantime manhandled book store copies. It is difficult to get too much HCB and this offers a lot in one package.
I take minor exception to HCB as elevating photography to art -- he is more often described as someone who turned his hobby into an art form, albeit it was a hobby informed by artisitic sensibility. The incomparable Eastman House in Rochester has examples that go back to the earliest days of photography as art. But the 20th century was crowded with photographic art. HCB's eminence in the PostWar recognition of Photography as Art by such places as MOMA is a given. (he preferred the small a).
The number of photographs included is for me in this book is an asset, providing a broad look at the stupendous body of work done by HCB during his long career.
In the 1950s and early 60s, the greatest influence on young photojournalists came from "This Is War" by David Douglas Duncan, published in 1951 and "The Decisive Moment" in 1952, which took its title from HCB's text. The Verve edition used a different title, i.e. "Images à la sauvette" which translates to "pictures on the run."
Robert Capa suggested to HCB that he call himself a photojournalist and later the two would join in forming Magnum, the first and greatest photo agency. From that came the inaccurate sometime sobriquet of " Father of Photojounalism."
HCB's work received the earliest important recognition from Americans and his exhibitions and books always received a warm reception. Had he been an American, his political views might have ensnared him in the hysteria of the 50s.His individual perspective was as strong as one might expect from someone who spent three years in a Nazi prison. After the war's bitter experiene, HCB's work became much more humanist.
In France his acceptance as an artist does not fully reflect the merits of his work. The US has accepted the work of HCB and Eugene Atget at a level that the French art establishment did not -- although he did have support that matters. One reason cited is that HCB objected to the "fetishistic attitude" toward original prints.
HCB's darkroom work was done by skilled technicians. Berenice Abbot promoted the merit of Atget's work with her own prints from the thousands of negatives she brought back to the US.
That is a point on which HCB was entirely right. Some earlier vintage prints of his work is not all that good. HCB recognized that for his genre, a skilled darkroom craftsman could both satisfy his esthetic judgments and replicate his work over and over. What he could control was how many "authorized" images there were.
A gigantic HCB exhiition at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France several years ago was pectacular -- the BNF chosen because it would gladly work with HCB and his wife. That was a rare opportunity that had to be taken. You don't think much about the print, but rather what an eye HCB has for the moment.
There are certainly photographers who marry their eye to theirr work in the darkroom. HCB did not see it that way.
This book is perfect for me, but others less familiar with HCB's work might be better off with one of his books on a theme, e.g. Paris, etc.
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