• HOME
  • ABOUT
  • ARTIST BIRTHDAY CALENDAR
  • SUBMISSIONS
  • CONTACT
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • YouTube

Daily Art Fixx

visual arts blog, painting, drawing, sculpture, illustration and more!

  • Art History
  • Drawing
  • Illustration
  • Mixed Media
  • Painting
  • Photography
  • Sculpture
  • Video
  • ART QUOTES
  • MORE CATEGORIES
    • 5 Women Artists Series
    • Architecture
    • Art & Technology
    • Art-e-Facts
    • Body Art
    • Collage
    • Cover Art
    • Crafts
    • Design
    • Digital
    • E-Learning
    • Eco-Art
    • Group Feature
    • Mixed Media
    • Nature
    • Street Art
    • Weird Art
    • Women in Visual Arts

Henri Cartier-Bresson: 1908 – 2004

August 22, 2016 By Wendy Campbell

Henri Cartier-Bresson photo-by-Arnold-Newman-New-York-1946Born on August 22, 1908, in Chanteloup, Seine-et-Marne, near Paris, Henri Cartier-Bresson is considered by many to be the father of modern photo-journalism.

In 1927, Cartier-Bresson studied painting at the Lhote Academy in Paris under Cubist painter and sculptor André Lhote. He turned to photography in 1931 when he acquired a Leica 35mm camera – a camera that, unlike its bulky predecessors, was ideal for capturing action.

Cartier-Bresson preferred an unobtrusive (“a fly on the wall”) approach to photography. This approach helped to develop the real-life reporting (candid photography), that has influenced generations of photo-journalists.

Cartier-Bresson traveled the world photographing “the times” in Russia, China, Cuba, India, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Turkey, Europe, and the United States. He photographed events such as the funeral of Gandhi, the fall of Beijing, and the liberation of Paris. Cartier-Bresson’s main body of work however was of human activities and the institutions of society. In every country, he sought out market places, weddings, funerals, people at work, children in parks, adults in their leisure time, and other every-day activities.

During the Battle of France, in June 1940, Cartier-Bresson was captured by German soldiers and spent 35 months in prisoner-of-war camps doing forced labour under the Nazis. He escaped in 1943 and began working for MNPGD, a secret organization that aided prisoners and escapees. At the end of the war, Cartier-Bresson directed “Le Retour” (The Return), a documentary on the repatriation of prisoners of war and detainees.

In 1947, along with Robert Capa, David Seymour, William Vandivert, and George Rodger, Cartier-Bresson founded the co-operative agency “Magnum Photos”. The aim of Magnum was to allow photographers to “work outside the formulas of magazine journalism”.

In 1952, Cartier-Bresson published a book of his photographs entitled ” Images à la Sauvette” (images on the run),  with the English title “The Decisive Moment”. In the 1960s he created 16 portraiture stories entitled “A Touch of Greatness” for the the London magazine “The Queen”. The stories profiled personalities such as Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Miller, Robert Kennedy and others.

In 1968, Cartier-Bresson left Magnum Photos and photography in general, focusing once again on drawing and painting. He retired from photography completely by 1975 and had his first exhibition of his drawings at the Carlton Gallery in New York in 1975.

From 1975 on, Cartier-Bresson continued to focus on drawing. In 1982 he was awarded the Grand Prix National de la Photographie in Paris, and in 1986, the Novecento Prize in Palermo, Italy.  In 1988, the Museum of Modern Art in New York held an exhibition of his photographs, “Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Early Work”.

In 2003, Cartier-Bresson, along with his wife Martine Franck and their daughter Mélanie, launched the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation, to provide a permanent home for his collected works and an exhibition space for other artists. Cartier-Bresson died peacefully on August 3, 2004 in Montjustin, Provence. He was buried in the cemetery of Montjustin, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France.

For a complete biography of Henri Cartier-Bresson, visit the HCB Foundation or for a good source of photos visit Magnum Photos.

Henri Cartier-Bresson Seville, Spain
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson Liverpool
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson Quai-de-Javel (Ragpickers)
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson Brussels1932
Henri Cartier-BressonAlbert-Camus-1944
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson Hamburg,-Germany.-The-sign-reads,-Looking-for-any-kind-of-work-1952-1953
Henri Cartier-Bresson Near-Strasbourg-France-1944
Henri Cartier-Bresson Naples-Italy-1960
Henri Cartier-Bresson New-York-1960

Sources: Met Museum,  HCB Foundation, Wikipedia

Filed Under: ART, Art History, Photography Tagged With: French Art, French Photographers, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Magnum Photos, photo journalism

Alain Delorme: Photography

April 13, 2012 By Wendy Campbell

Totem-4-Alain-DelormeBorn in 1979, Alain Delorme lives and works in Paris, France. Delorme graduated from Gobelins, l’école de l’image, Paris and has a Master of photography from Paris VIII University.

Delorme’s Totems series “plunges us into the core of contemporary China and its complexity.  Under the blue sky of a highly colored Shanghai, men carry throughout the city unbelievable piles. These precarious columns made of cardboard or chairs appear as new totems of a society in complete transformation, both a factory for the world and a new El Dorado of the market economy” (Read the full story by Raphaële Bertho here)

To see more, visit AlainDelorme.com.




Filed Under: ART, Photography Tagged With: Alain Delorme, French Art, French Photographers

GET DAF'S MONTHLY E-NEWS!

Categories

Archives by Date

Privacy Policy ✪ Copyright © 2023 Daily Art Fixx