Henri Cartier-Bresson

From 16th December 2002 until 15th January 2003, a retrospective of works by world famous photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson was held in the "Arsenals" exhibition hall in Riga. The exhibition consisted of the poetic photographs from his early surrealism period, documentary work from the Paris resistance movement as well as series and photo reportages from his travels of the 60s and 70s.

The outstanding and legendary master of photography Henri Cartier-Bresson (b. 1908) has entered the history books as the first artist to have revealed and lifted out the artistic language of the snapshot with virtuosity. Calling his 35 mm Leica an extension of his eye that allows one to record a specific moment in the flow of life, the artist formulated his method as seizing the decisive moment. "For me the camera is a notebook, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity. A master of the moment that, in the visual sense, simultaneously both asks and decides." Cartier-Bresson's humane "photographs of life" and his interpretation of the moment have influenced many generations of photographers.

Cartier-Bresson was born in Chanteloupe, France and obtained his first camera, a Box Brownie, as a teenager. However, his early art student days spent in the Paris studio of painter André Lhote were more concerned with painting than photography. There is the view that it was painting that influenced his fine and precise sense of composition that was later to reveal itself in almost every one of his photographs. In Paris at the end of the 1920s, Cartier-Bresson was introduced to the surrealist group and fascinated with the theories of André Breton, who emphasised the significance of intuition and spontaneity in art as well as in life. However, having become disappointed with painting, he set off for South Africa but on the return journey in 1932, in Marseille he became acquainted with the small and light Leica.

The camera's compact size and ease of handling allowed the photographer to record life's decisive moments quickly and unobtrusively. The new view offered by the camera helps to "capture" life and preserve the living moment". The desire to document reality and reveal its meaning that, in part, came from his shocking experience in Africa, determined Cartier-Bresson's decision to "take his camera and go out into the street". In the late 30s the photographer toured Mexico, Eastern Europe and Spain documenting life in these countries and regions, getting a feel for the everyday life of the ordinary people. He also became interested in the language of the cinema but after several attempts in this field (also assisting Jean Renoir), he gave up pointing out the lack of spontaneity in filmmaking. He became acquainted with Robert Capa and David Seymour while working for the left wing newspaper Ce Soir and his style changed. Subjective artistic searches were substituted by "a socially more interested and political view".

During the Second World War, Cartier-Bresson spent three years as prisoner of war in a German labour camp. Having escaped he lived illegally in Paris documenting life in the occupied city and its liberation. Several portraits of famous Parisian artists came from this period (Matisse, Braque and others).

After the war in 1947, Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, George Rodger and David Seymour founded Magnum Photos. The association stands for the independence of photographers and the merging of the qualities of photo reportage and art. Cartier-Bresson visited many countries as a photojournalist - USA, India, Russia, China, and published several albums of his photos. His reportages are characterised by a human touch that joins the precision of facts with sensitivity in the human experience. He produced many portraits. All this time he remained faithful to the possibilities offered by the viewfinder of his 35mm "amateur" camera and the directness of the snapshot. As the photographer confirms: "Contemplation of things as they are, without mistakes and confusion, without substitution and deceit, is in itself a more honourable activity than the whole field of inventions. It is respect for reality."

In the middle of the 1970s, Henri Cartier-Bresson abandoned photography and turned once again to painting and drawing.

Henri Cartier-Bresson. Photography
Ort: Arsenals / State Museum of Art, Riga