ART & DESIGN
Cardinal Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII) in Montmartre, Paris by Henri Cartier-Bresson shows the creative eyes the famous photographer brought to black and white photography in Henri Cartier-Bresson Quotes. Image: ICP
PHOTOGRAPHY
In addition to the amazing Henri Cartier-Bresson photos, one other way of understanding the photography career of this famous photographer is through his quotes. Here are the top 50 Henri Cartier-Bresson Quotes on photography
BY KAZAD
Henri Cartier-Bresson quotes are the windows to the photography career of this famous photographer who is considered a master of candid photography and street photography. Young photographers have a lot to learn from quotes by this great French humanist photographer. In the age of digital photography, many young photographers have the propensity to take multiple images of the same subject. The fact that digital cameras have the capacity to store many images is responsible for this development. For these young photographers, there is a lot to learn from Henri Cartier- Bresson. He warns: “We must avoid, however, snapping away, shooting quickly and without thought, overloading ourselves with unnecessary images that clutter our memory and diminish the clarity of the whole”.
Henri Cartier-Bresson photography
Henri Cartier- Bresson photography quotes provide amazing insight into how this famous photographer felt about photography. He was not just an amazing landscape photographer; he was also a great portraitist. His black & white portrait photographs are detailed and captured the essence of his subjects. In spite of all his success in the area of portrait photography, Henri Cartier Bresson found the process very challenging. His photography quotes provide a window into how he felt about portrait photography. “The most difficult thing for me is a portrait. You have to try and put your camera between the skin of a person and his shirt,” he said.
For Henri Cartier Bresson, taking photographs requires a lot of attention and focus. The process requires a constant devotion to capturing the best images. Many Henri Cartier Bresson photography quotes reveal his philosophy and attentiveness to capturing the best pictures. An important example of those photography quotes is illuminating. He notes that “While we’re working, we must be conscious of what we’re doing.” For Henri Cartier Bresson, consciousness is very important because the difference between a good or bad picture rests in the ability to prepare to take great pictures. Henri Cartier-Bresson puts it succinctly in one of his photography quotes when he said: “The picture is good or not from the moment it was caught in the camera.”
Throughout his life, Henri Cartier Bresson was candid about what it means to take a good photograph. For him, preparation was very important. In one of his photography quotes, he explained that “…it is seldom indeed that a composition which was poor when the picture was taken can be improved by reshaping it in the darkroom.”
About Henri Cartier-Bresson
Born in Chanteloup, Seine-et-Marne, Henri Cartier-Bresson is one of the most famous photographers of all time. Celebrated for his Decisive Moment and tight compositions, Henri Cartier-Bresson was one of the photographers that brought the necessary attention to the progress of photography. While many of his contemporaries were focused on just the end product, he was committed to the process that led to a brilliant image in the end. He was candid about the significance of the process in the creation of amazing images. In one of his photography quotes, he notes: “It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera… they are made with the eye, heart, and head.”
Although well known for his photography, Henri Cartier-Bresson was also an artist. His love for art started even before he fell in love with photography. His fascination with art began at a very young age when he developed an interest in painting and surrealism. Henri Cartier-Bresson was focused on art until 1932. However, while spending a year in the Ivory Coast, he got bitten by the photography bug. That marked the beginning of a lifelong passion for photography. One of his favorite cameras was the Leica, a camera that served him for most of his life. Henri Cartier-Bresson had his first exhibition in 1933 at the Julien Levy in New York. The show was well-received by critics and collectors.
Henri Cartier-Bresson Photography Style
At the height of his photography career, Henri Cartier-Bresson got together with Robert Capa, David ‘Chim’ Seymour, William Vandivert, and George Rodger and founded the Magnum Photos. In 1952, Henri Cartier-Bresson published his first book. Titled Images à la Sauvette (Decisive Moment), the book was published soon after he returned to Europe after 3 years of traveling in the East.
In 1940 during World War II, Henri Cartier-Bresson was captured and became a prisoner of war. While in captivity, he struggled endlessly to escape. For him, the third time was a charm. He escaped from captivity in 1943 after trying three times. Soon after escaping, he became an advocate for the plight of prisoners. Additionally, he later joined an underground organization committed to assisting prisoners and escapees. In furtherance of his effort to bring attention to the issues of war and the plight of war prisoners, he, in 1945, photographed the liberation of Paris with a group of professional journalists and then filmed the documentary Le Retour (The Return).
As he grew older, Henri Cartier-Bresson began to make a shift from photography back to art. Instead of continuing with his photography activities, he started drawing and painting. In 2003, he created the Foundation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris with his wife and daughter. The foundation was dedicated to the preservation of his work. When he died on August 3, 2004, Henri Cartier-Bresson was already a legend in the photography world. He won many awards and had several honorary doctorate degrees under his belt. He was just one week short of his 96th birthday when he died.
Fourteen years after his death, Henri Cartier-Bresson continues to be celebrated in the photography world. His photography quotes continue to influence young and old photographers.
Henri Cartier-Bresson Quotes
Here are some important Henri Cartier-Bresson photography quotes that provide important insight into his photography philosophy.
“A photograph is neither taken or seized by force. It offers itself up. It is the photo that takes you. One must not take photos.”
The intensive use of photographs by mass media lays ever fresh responsibilities upon the photographer. We have to acknowledge the existence of a chasm between the economic needs of our consumer society and the requirements of those who bear witness to this epoch. This affects us all, particularly the younger generations of photographers. We must take greater care than ever not to allow ourselves to be separated from the real world and from humanity.
“Of all the means of expression, photography is the only one that fixes a precise moment in time.”
“The picture is good or not from the moment it was caught in the camera.”
“Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.”
“The creative act lasts but a brief moment, a lightning instant of give-and-take, just long enough for you to level the camera and to trap the fleeting prey in your little box.”
“Photography is, for me, a spontaneous impulse coming from an ever attentive eye which captures the moment and its eternity.“
“Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera.”
“For me, the camera is a sketchbook, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity.”
“Above all, I craved to seize the whole essence, in the confines of one single photograph, of some situation that was in the process of unrolling itself before my eyes.”
“Memory is very important, the memory of each photo taken, flowing at the same speed as the event. During the work, you have to be sure that you haven’t left any holes, that you’ve captured everything, because afterwards it will be too late.”
“Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again.”
“This recognition, in real life, of a rhythm of surfaces, lines, and values is for me the essence of photography; composition should be a constant of preoccupation, being a simultaneous coalition – an organic coordination of visual elements.”
“Reality offers us such wealth that we must cut some of it out on the spot, simplify. The question is, do we always cut out what we should?”
As far as I am concerned, taking photographs is a means of understanding which cannot be separated from other means of visual expression. It is a way of shouting, of freeing oneself, not of proving or asserting one’s own originality. It is a way of life.
“While we’re working, we must be conscious of what we’re doing.”
“We must avoid however, snapping away, shooting quickly and without thought, overloading ourselves with unnecessary images that clutter our memory and diminish the clarity of the whole.”
“A photographer must always work with the greatest respect for his subject and in terms of his own point of view.”
“To photograph is to hold one’s breath, when all faculties converge to capture fleeting reality. It’s at that precise moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy.”
“To take photographs means to recognize – simultaneously and within a fraction of a second – both the fact itself and the rigorous organization of visually perceived forms that give it meaning. It is putting one’s head, one’s eye and one’s heart on the same axis.”
“In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject. The little, human detail can become a Leitmotiv.”
“As time passes by and you look at portraits, the people come back to you like a silent echo. A photograph is a vestige of a face, a face in transit. Photography has something to do with death. It’s a trace.”
“Thinking should be done before and after, not during photographing.”
“Photography is an immediate reaction, drawing is a meditation.”
“I believe that, through the act of living, the discovery of oneself is made concurrently with the discovery of the world around us.”
“You just have to live and life will give you pictures.”
“Memory is very important, the memory of each photo taken, flowing at the same speed as the event.”
“Photography is an immediate reaction, drawing is a meditation.”
“The creative act lasts but a brief moment, a lightning instant of give-and-take, just long enough for you to level the camera and to trap the fleeting prey in your little box.”
“Above all, I craved to seize the whole essence, in the confines of one single photograph, of some situation that was in the process of unrolling itself before my eyes.”
“Think about the photo before and after, never during. The secret is to take your time. You mustn’t go too fast. The subject must forget about you. Then, however, you must be very quick.”
“Actually, I’m not all that interested in the subject of photography. Once the picture is in the box, I’m not all that interested in what happens next. Hunters, after all, aren’t cooks.”
“In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject. The little, human detail can become a Leitmotiv.”
“Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again.”
“The most difficult thing for me is a portrait. You have to try and put your camera between the skin of a person and his shirt.”
“To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event.”
“While we’re working, we must be conscious of what we’re doing”
“Think about the photo before and after, never during. The secret is to take your time. You mustn’t go too fast. The subject must forget about you. Then, however, you must be very quick.”
“Photography has not changed since its origin except in its technical aspects, which for me are not important.”
“What reinforces the content of a photograph is the sense of rhythm – the relationship between shapes and values.”
Photography is nothing–it’s life that interests me.
“…it is seldom indeed that a composition which was poor when the picture was taken can be improved by reshaping it in the darkroom.”
“To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event.”
“Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again.”
“The photograph itself doesn’t interest me. I want only to capture a minute part of reality.”
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