He made it look so easy... my favorite, for sure.
French Photo Legend Cartier-Bresson Dies
Wed Aug 4, 2004 01:23 PM ET
PARIS (Reuters) - Frenchman Henri Cartier-Bresson, widely regarded as one of the great photographers of the 20th century, has died aged 95, LCI television reported on Wednesday.
The publicity-shy Cartier-Bresson, a founding member of the Magnum picture agency in 1947, died in the south of France, the private channel said.
The cause of his death was not immediately announced.
Cartier-Bresson made his name partly by being in the right place at the right time, a knack that enabled him to develop his talent for capturing on celluloid what he called the "decisive moment."
During a career in which he traveled to 23 countries, Cartier-Bresson documented the Spanish Civil war, the liberation of Paris during World War II, the death of India's Mahatma Ghandi and the fall of Beijing to Mao Zedong's forces in 1949.
In 1954, the Frenchman also became the first Western photographer allowed into the Soviet Union after the death of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin the previous year.
Thirty years later, Cartier-Bresson packed away his Leica camera and switched to the other passion in his life -- drawing.
Last year, the national library hosted a retrospective of Cartier-Bresson's work, grouping 350 classic shots and drawings almost 30 years after he gave up photography.
― andy, Wednesday, 4 August 2004 17:03 (twenty-one years ago)
he gave birth (along w. weegee) to the kind of photography that i love, that makes me live...its strange that i am really not sad but suprised that we was still alive.
im glad he surrived.
― anthony, Wednesday, 4 August 2004 18:25 (twenty-one years ago)
if anyone has seen renoir's
partie de campagne/day in the country, cartier-bresson is the priest who does a double take when he sees sylvia bataille.
― amateur!st (amateurist), Wednesday, 4 August 2004 20:54 (twenty-one years ago)
RIP Henri. I too amazed he was still alive - I adore his work, I try to achieve those "moments" in my own. I shall perhaps do some photography this weekend.
― Trayce (trayce), Wednesday, 4 August 2004 21:32 (twenty-one years ago)
He was great, truly - poetry in photograph form.
And this is so perfectly French, right down to the cigarette in the guy's hand:
― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Thursday, 5 August 2004 04:39 (twenty-one years ago)
that last photo is so satisfying. the one by the river reminds me of a story by guy de maupassant that i read years ago for a short story class. or maybe i looked it up after reading something else for the class.
― youn, Thursday, 5 August 2004 06:04 (twenty-one years ago)