Hyères, France

Henri Cartier-Bresson French

Not on view

In 1931 Cartier-Bresson began to use a camera to make photographs that reveal the influence of both Cubism and Surrealism-bold, flat planes, collage-like compositions, and spatial ambiguity-as well as an affinity for society's outcasts and the back alleys where they lived and worked. Within a year, he had mastered the miniature 35mm Leica camera and had begun traveling in Italy, Spain, Morocco, and Mexico, developing what would become one of the hallmarks of twentieth-century photographic style. In his 1952 landmark monograph The Decisive Moment, Cartier-Bresson defined his philosophy: "To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which gave that event its proper expression."

Hyères, France, Henri Cartier-Bresson (French, Chanteloup-en-Brie 1908–2004 Montjustin), Gelatin silver print

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