Bruxelles, Belgique

Henri Cartier-Bresson French

Not on view

In 1931, Henri Cartier-Bresson began to make photographs influenced by Cubism and Surrealism—with bold, flat planes, collage-like compositions, and spatial ambiguity. Within a year, he began traveling in Europe and Mexico, developing what would become one of the hallmarks of twentieth-century photographic style. 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."

This extraordinarily rare vintage print was made by the artist himself in the 1930s, before the master printer Pierre Gassmann began developing and printing nearly all of Cartier-Bresson’s negatives after 1950.

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

This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Open Access

As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.

API

Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.