Henri Cartier-Bresson reveals - as only a few great artists have done consistently - the variety and richness of human experience in the twentieth century. This second volume of Aperture's Masters of Photography series confirms the genius of the photographer who - with the new, smaller, hand-held cameras and faster films - defined the idea of "the decisive moment" in photography.

Cartier-Bresson's imagery is intimate but utterly respectful of his subjects. In his travels throughout the world, he has captured glimpses of individual lives in scores of countries. Taken together, Cartier-Bresson's works constitute a personal history of epic scope.

Walker Evans and Henri Cartier-Bresson belonged to the same generation and shared an insatiable intellectual curiosity. Their works were exhibited together in 1935 at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York, and they shared a period working in America when Cartier-Bresson was preparing his show at the Museum of Modern Art between 1946 and 1947.

This book draws a parallel between their work about America. As John Szarkowski, Director of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, argued, ‘Evans defined in his work the essence of the documentary aesthetic.’ Cartier-Bresson, on the other hand, was making a fresh start, leaving behind his work in moving imagery and embracing a career as a stills photographer. But they were both approaching their work as a form of social criticism, imbued with references to literature and painting.

This volume presents photographer Cartier-Bresson's own selection of 130 of his photographs of Paris, taken over 50 years. Accompanying text discusses the history of Cartier-Bresson's engagement with the city and its place in his achievement.

Henri Cartier-Bresson as perhaps the greatest photographer of the twentieth century. In a career spanning over sixty years, he used his camera as an impassive and neutral third eye to capture the vagaries of human behaviour and to produce some of the most memorable and compelling photographs ever published.

In this impressive biographical study, Jean-Pierre Montier traces Cartier-Bresson's artistic progression from his early training as a painter and draughtsman; he provides a detailed analysis of his most famous images and discusses the various philosophies that informed his work, notably Zen and Surrealism.

Drawing together a remarkable selection of the paintings, sketches, and photographs, this book attempts a serious evaluation, not just of Cartier-Bresson's photojournalism, but of his oeuvre as a whole.

This collection of work by Henri Cartier-Bresson is the ultimate retrospective look at a lifetime’s achievement. It brims with classic photographs that have become icons of the medium, as well as rarely seen work from all periods of Cartier-Bresson’s life, including a significant number of previously unpublished photographs and a generous selection of drawings, paintings and film stills. The book also features personal souvenirs from Cartier-Bresson’s youth, his family and the founding of Magnum.

Cartier-Bresson’s extraordinary images are shaped by an eye and a mind legendary for their intelligent empathy and for their unerring ability to get to the heart of the matter. This definitive collection of the master photographer’s work is an essential book for anyone interested in photography – indeed, for anyone interested in the people, places and events of the last century.

"Photography is nothing, it's life that interests me." With his ever-present Leica camera, Henri Cartier-Bresson captured the raw and the sweet, the comic and the profound moments of lives that were lost in the grind or relegated to someone else's memory -- the coincidental moment at which a reflection in a puddle of water mimics a poster on a nearby wall or when lovers kiss, oblivious to the not-so-pristine world around them. It is the familiar beauty and cruelty of the day-to-day that is so engaging in his photographs: two cosmopolitan woman chat nonchalantly while surrounded by empty lettuce crates; mourners at a funeral stare directly into the camera; postwar Paris awakens in the fog. Cartier-Bresson was the master of the "decisive moment," that fleeting instant for which a picture really is worth a thousand words, which is the essence of photojournalism. In no place is this more exemplified than in his images of Paris.

Cartier-Bresson personally selected the more than 130 black-and-white photographs of Paris for this publication. With photographs taken over a period of 50 years, the work is beautifully and generously printed in duotone. The accompanying essays, both short and unobtrusive, are also familiar and personal. One essayist captures the essence of Cartier-Bresson's camera work: "When life calls, he is always there, to assist, or to admire; to rebel, or to say no to exploiters and imposters, and to all those who demean its value." -- Manine Golden

"Die frühen Photographien" ist ein Klassiker von Henri Cartier-Bresson, der bislang im deutschen Sprachraum noch nicht veröffentlicht wurde. Er versammelt 80 Photographien aus den Jahren 1926 bis 1934, die 1987 im Museum of Modern Art ausgestellt wurden. Nach ersten photographischen Versuchen während seines Studiums der Malerei in Paris widmete sich Henri Cartier-Bresson ab 1930 endgültig und ganz der Photographie. Seit 1932 photographiert er mit seiner Lieblingskamera, der unauffälligen Leica M, deren Optik dem menschlichen Auge entspricht. Viele Aufnahmen sind Straßenszenen aus Paris und anderen französischen Städten. Andere brachte er von seinen Reisen nach Spanien, Italien, Marokko und Mexiko mit. Immer ist in ihnen die aufgewühlte Stimmung zwischen den beiden Weltkriegen spürbar. Daneben finden sich erste Künstlerportraits, die später zu einem seiner großen Sujets werden sollten. Am 18. September eröffnet in der Kunsthalle der Versicherungskammer Bayern in München eine Ausstellung mit diesen frühen Photographien von Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Wer verbirgt sich hinter den legendären Initialen HCB, wer genau ist Henri Cartier-Bresson - dieser Mann, der gegen seinen Willen zum Mythos geworden ist, der die Photographie, und nicht nur den Bildjournalismus des 20. Jahrhunderts mit seinem ganz persönlichen Stil und Ethos geprägt hat, der Form und Inhalt in einer Art und Weise zu verbinden wußte, dass es heute undenkbar scheint, die Welt der Fakten und des Sichtbaren, ob alltäglich oder spektakulär, anders wiederzugeben, als er es ein halbes Jahrhundert lang tat? Die Frage ist so komplex und vielschichtig wie die Persönlichkeit und das Werk Henri Cartier-Bressons, dessen 95. Geburtstag in diesem Jahr mit zwei außergewöhnlichen Ereignissen gefeiert wird: im Frühjahr mit einer großen Retrospektive in der Biblioth que nationale de France, Paris, und mit der die Ausstellung begleitenden großen Monographie, die wir hier in der deutschen Übersetzung anbieten.

Auf über 400 Seiten, in acht Textbeiträgen von namhaften Autoren - darunter Je an Clair, Peter Galassi und Robert Delpire - und mit mehr als 600 Abbildungen gibt dieses opulente Buch die endgültigen Antworten auf die Frage, um wen es sich bei dem Photographen und Filmemacher, dem Künstler, dem Kosmopoliten und dem Menschen Henri Cartier-Bresson handelt.

The 50 most famous iconic photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresso, doyen of picture journalism.

Seit den 30er Jahren des vergangenen Jahrhunderst hat Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004) immer wieder neue - und nach ihm selten erreichte Maßstäbe gesetzt wenn es darum ging, Photojournalismus und Photokunst miteinander zu verbinden. Sein Name, der untrennbar mit der von ihm mitbegründeten legendären Photoagentur Magnum verbunden ist, wurde zum Gütesiegel einer Bildberichterstattung, der künstlerischer Anspruch und humanes Interesse ebensoviel gelten wie der Informations- oder auch Sensationswert einer Photographie. In unserer Serie Meisterwerke bieten wir diesen handlichen Band mit den berühmtesten HCB-Ikonen aus 50 Jahren an. Der begleitende Text stammt vom Meisters selbst: Es ist seine 1952 verfaßte Definition des entscheidenden Augenblicks, die zur theoretischen Grundlage jedes engagierten Photojournalismus werden sollte.

"Photography is nothing, it's life that interests me." With his ever-present Leica camera, Henri Cartier-Bresson captured the raw and the sweet, the comic and the profound moments of lives that were lost in the grind or relegated to someone else's memory - the coincidental moment at which a reflection in a puddle of water mimics a poster on a nearby wall or when lovers kiss, oblivious to the not-so-pristine world around them. It is the familiar beauty and cruelty of the day-to-day that is so engaging in his photographs: two cosmopolitan woman chat nonchalantly while surrounded by empty lettuce crates; mourners at a funeral stare directly into the camera; postwar Paris awakens in the fog. Cartier-Bresson was the master of the "decisive moment," that fleeting instant for which a picture really is worth a thousand words, which is the essence of photojournalism. In no place is this more exemplified than in his images of Paris. Cartier-Bresson personally selected the more than 130 black-and-white photographs of Paris for this publication. With photographs taken over a period of 50 years, the work is beautifully and generously printed in duotone. The accompanying essays, both short and unobtrusive, are also familiar and personal. One essayist captures the essence of Cartier-Bresson's camera work: "When life calls, he is always there, to assist, or to admire; to rebel, or to say no to exploiters and imposters, and to all those who demean its value."