Henri Cartier-Bresson: À Propos de Paris
Category: Books,Travel,Europe
Henri Cartier-Bresson: À Propos de Paris Details
Amazon.com Review "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 Read more About the Author Henri Cartier-Bresson is one of this century's leading photographers and his career has profoundly influenced the field. His earliest images are of Europe in the 1930s and 40s; he later traveled throughout the world -- to the United States, India, Japan, China, Mexico, the Soviet Union -- to frame the world with his camera. Read more
Reviews
The title is in French, but the book is in English. Actually, there is little text here at all--a few words at the beginning by HCB just to let us know that the rest of the text, that in front by Vera Feyder and at the end by Andre Pieyre de Mandiargues, are included at his request. They both were originally written to accompany the catalogue of his Paris exhibition of photographs, "Paris at a Glan ce" in 1984. Each page has only a page number, a photo and the year the picture was taken (the titles are listed at the end of the book). With no words to distract a viewer, the images take center stage on every page.Cartier Bresson personally selected these 130 photographs for publication. and they have been well-produced in black-white duotone. I have my favorites, but enjoy looking and relooking at them all--often having a new appreciation for a picture I had previously just glanced at. We now have so many options with cameras, but HCB worked with a Leica with a "normal field of view" through a 50mm lens (equivalent to many digital camera's 35mm lens today). This is an essential collection for any photographer.
