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Shanghai

1948, printed ca. 1960
Not on view
In December 1948, Life magazine sent Cartier-Bresson to China to document the turbulent transition from Kuomintang to Communist rule. This photograph captures the pandemonium incited by the currency crash of that month, when the value of paper money plummeted and the Kuomintang decided to distribute forty grams of gold per person. Thousands waited in line for hours as the police made only a token gesture toward maintaining order, resulting in ten deaths by suffocation. Cartier-Bresson deftly captured the desperation and claustrophobia of the scene by compressing the mass of people within a tight frame as they propelled themselves toward the bank building just beyond the right edge of the picture.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Shanghai
  • Artist: Henri Cartier-Bresson (French, Chanteloup-en-Brie 1908–2004 Montjustin)
  • Date: 1948, printed ca. 1960
  • Medium: Gelatin silver print
  • Dimensions: 25 x 37 cm (9 13/16 x 14 9/16 in.)
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Evelene and Robert Wechsler Gift and Charina Foundation Inc. Gift, 2002
  • Object Number: 2002.419
  • Rights and Reproduction: © Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs

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