Quai St. Bernard, Paris
Although he had made pictures from an early age, it was only in 1931 that Cartier-Bresson found his calling as a photographer. First with an unwieldy box camera then in 1932 with a 35mm camera (a new compact Leica), he set out to photograph life in the streets of various cities in his native France and abroad. He quickly developed what would become a hallmark of twentieth-century photographic style. In his landmark 1952 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.”
Artwork Details
- Title: Quai St. Bernard, Paris
- Artist: Henri Cartier-Bresson (French, Chanteloup-en-Brie 1908–2004 Montjustin)
- Date: 1932, printed 1946
- Medium: Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions: 23.4 x 34.8 cm (9 3/16 x 13 11/16 in.)
- Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987
- Object Number: 1987.1100.162
- Rights and Reproduction: © Henri Cartier-Bresson/Magnum
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
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