Henri Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier - Bresson is a Frenchman born in 1908 and is regarded as one of the greatest photographers of all time. He has a great ability to catch "the decisive moment" and with his precise eye for design, methods of work and his literate comments about the theory and practice of photography has made him a legendary figure among contemporary photojournalists. 

Henri started off by taking holiday snaps as a child and later experimenting with other cameras, whilst also studying painting which has helped him develop a great subtle and sensitive eye for composition.  

His passion truly ignited after a bout of illness when he bought a Leica and just began snapping pictures in Marseilles, This was pivotal in his experience helping him to discover a new world and a new kind of seeing, spontaneous and unpredictable. This began a great collaboration between man and machine in the history and photography with him remaining devoted to the 35mm camera throughout his career. In his own words the camera became an "extension of the eye". 

His career as a photojournalist was slightly interrupted by service in the french army during WW2 until he escaped from a camp where he was held as a prisoner of war. 

Henri Cartier-Bresson has a high respect for the discipline of press photography, of having to tell a story crisply in one striking picture. He said that a sense of human dignity is an essential quality for any photojournalist, and feels that no picture, regardless of how brilliant from a visual or technical standpoint, can be successful unless it grows from Love and comprehension of people and

 an awareness of 'man facing his fate'. Also in his pictures he always only uses the availability of natural light, refusing to take shots with the use of a flash and his shots are always in black and white. 

I originally saw Henri Cartier-Bressons images in a book given to me by steve the tutor when I said I was interested in taking random unstaged shots of people (Reportage). I was immediatly drawn to his work especially because he works exclusivly in black and white which I love because it creates a more dramatic image without taking your eye away from what the shot is trying to portray. 

I have then started to further research him on the internet to get a better understanding of the type of photographs that are taken and the technique that he uses. 

I am really drawn to the image above because it is truly capturing the mood of of the boy carrying the bottles. He looks so smug and happy to be walking down the street with them and Cartier-Bresson has captured a moment that would of been lost forever had he not spotted the potential in this shot. 

It not only captures the boy but your eye is also drawn to the girls behind him and then onto the other people walking down the street. It is composed in a way that it draws your eye from the focal point of the boy and on into the rest of the photograph giving a long depth of field 

with just the background out of focus. 

This photograph uses the stairs to draw your eye through the picture and down into the street below, where you are drawn to the cyclist. What is clever about this picture is the composition and timing of the shot. It has captured the bike at the perfect moment to place it in the space to the left hand corner of the shot. Also the curve of the railing is replicated in the curve of the pavement. 

I am drawn to this photograph because it captures such an intimate moment between the couple who are sitting having lunch and relaxing. It not only captures the couple but you eye is drawn down the gents arm to under the table showing the dog expectantly looking at its owners. Even though this is a random shot the composition has clearly been thought of with the picture clearly being split into thirds. The centre is where the eye is drawn to first because of the kiss but then you move to the bottom of the picture noticing the dog but then cleverly the top of the image showing the doorwat takes up almost half of the picture. On closer inspection this hen shows a reflection in the doorway of what is going on around the couple in the street. 

The pictures below all as Henri says 'Capture the moment'. This is what I am going to try to capture when I go out on a shoot.