Henri Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French humanist photographer and artist. He is widely considered a master of candid photography. This style involves capturing subjects without their knowledge. He pioneered the genre of street photography. Cartier-Bresson believed in the concept of the "decisive moment." This was the essence of a great picture. It meant capturing a fleeting, perfect instant in time. He believed a single photograph could fix eternity in an instant.

To achieve this, he used specific tools and techniques. He relied on a small Leica camera equipped with a 50 mm lens. The small size of the Leica allowed him to remain anonymous. This anonymity was essential for capturing natural behavior. People often act unnaturally when they know a camera is watching. To stay even more hidden, he painted the shiny parts of his Leica with black paint. This helped him blend into crowds and intimate settings. This method allowed him to capture the world in its actual state of movement.

His artistic training began in childhood through several different paths. At age five, he began an apprenticeship in oil painting. He studied under his uncle Louis, a gifted painter. Later, he entered the Lhote Academy in Paris. There, he studied with the Cubist painter André Lhote. Lhote taught his students to link classical traditions with Modernism. This rigorous training helped Cartier-Bresson understand artistic form and composition. He even viewed his training as learning "photography without a camera."

Cartier-Bresson's life included many travels and significant changes. In 1929, an American named Harry Crosby gave him his first camera. Later, Cartier-Bresson traveled to the Côte d'Ivoire in French colonial Africa. While there, he survived by hunting game for local villagers. He noted that hunting taught him methods he later used in photography. He also spent time studying art and literature at the University of Cambridge. These experiences helped him become a bilingual and well-rounded artist.

His professional career saw rapid growth through the 1930s. In 1933, his work was exhibited at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York. He shared exhibition spaces with photographers like Walker Evans. In 1937, his first photojournalist photos were published in the French weekly *Regards*. He covered the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. He focused on the subjects in the streets rather than the monarchs. In 1947, he became a founding member of Magnum Photos. This was a major organization for professional photographers.

World War II brought great hardship to his life. In June 1940, he was captured by German soldiers. He spent 35 months in prisoner-of-war camps. During this time, he performed forced labor under the Nazis. He attempted to escape twice but failed. His third escape attempt was successful. He hid on a farm in Touraine and used false papers to travel. He even buried his Leica camera in the Vosges farmland to keep it safe. He later dug it up in 1943.

Cartier-Bresson's influence extended into film and other arts. He acted in films directed by Jean Renoir, such as *Partie de campagne*. Renoir wanted him to understand the view from the other side of the camera. He also co-directed an anti-fascist film during the Spanish Civil War. While he was famous for photography, he remained an artist at heart. In the 1970s, he largely stopped his photographic work. He chose to return to his original passion for painting.