Henri Cartier-Bresson Quotes

• It is through living that we discover ourselves, at the same time as we discover the world around us.

  Henri Cartier-Bresson

  Topics in Art

• 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.

  Henri Cartier-Bresson

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Level, Fleeting, Creative, Camera, Brief, Box, Instant, Lasts, Your, Act, Enough, Prey, Trap, Moment, Lightning, Just, Little, Long

• We photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing, and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth can make them come back again. We cannot develop and print a memory.

  Henri Cartier-Bresson

• 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.

  Henri Cartier-Bresson

• 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.

  Henri Cartier-Bresson

• To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event.

  Henri Cartier-Bresson

• 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.

  Henri Cartier-Bresson

• The photograph itself doesn’t interest me. I want only to capture a minute part of reality.

  Henri Cartier-Bresson

• 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.

  Henri Cartier-Bresson

• Photography is an immediate reaction, drawing is a meditation.

  Henri Cartier-Bresson

• 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.

  Henri Cartier-Bresson

• 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.

  Henri Cartier-Bresson

• In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject. The little, human detail can become a Leitmotiv.

  Henri Cartier-Bresson

• 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.

  Henri Cartier-Bresson

• 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.

  Henri Cartier-Bresson

• 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.

  Henri Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier-Bresson (16)

Birth:	22nd August, 1908
Death:	3rd August, 2004
Nationality:	French
Profession:	Photographer

About

Henri Cartier-Bresson was born in Chanteloup-en-Brie, France. He was a French humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, and an early user of 35 mm film. He pioneered the genre of street photography, and conceived of photography as capturing a decisive moment. His first photojournalist photos to be published came in 1937 when he covered the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, for the French weekly Regards. After trying to learn music, he was introduced to oil painting by his uncle Louis, a gifted painter. He also studied painting with society portraitist Jacques Émile Blanche.

Related Authors

• Galen Rowell
• Hermann Wilhelm Brandt
• Scott Roeben
• Aaron Siskind
• Leonard Nimoy
• Marina Tavares Dias
• Chris Marker
• Lou Reed
• Isaac Marion
• Norman Parkinson

Advertisement

Today's Anniversary - 30th December

Births

• 1865 - Rudyard Kipling
• 1989 - Ryan Sheckler
• 1930 - Sultan bin Abdulaziz
• 1934 - Joseph Bologna
• 1982 - Lacey Chabert

Deaths

• 2005 - Rona Jaffe
• 1979 - Richard Rodgers
• 1967 - Vincent Massey
• 1947 - Alfred North Whitehead
• 2002 - Mary Wesley