Maison Européenne de la Photographie Celebrates Henri Cartier-Bresson's Centennial
Categories: Art
Tags: Henry Cartier-Bresson photography Art
For me the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the master of the instant which, in visual terms, questions and decides simultaneously. In order to “give a meaning” to the world, one has to feel involved in what one frames through the viewfinder. This attitude requires concentration, discipline of mind, sensitivity, and a sense of geometry. It is by economy of means that one arrives at simplicity of expression.
To take a photograph is to hold one’s breath when all faculties converge in a face of fleeing reality. It is at that moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy.
To take a photograph means to recognize – simultaneously and within a fraction of a second– both the fact itself and the rigorous organisation 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.
Henry Cartier-Bresson
Behind Saint-Lazare Station, Paris, France, 1932
PARIS.- Presented as a celebration of the centenary of the birth of Henri Cartier- Bresson, this exhibition proposes a course starting from the 320 works preserved at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie. This collection was constituted starting from two broad topics: Paris and the Europeans.
The first is the result of a long work undertaken on the files of the photographer. Between 1980 and 1984, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Daniel Arnault, of Magnum, and Jean-Luc Monterosso selected a corpus of images on Paris. This unit then gave place to an exhibition, “Paris at view of the eye”, presented at the Carnavalet Museum during the Month of Photography, in November 1984. For the Europeans, Henri Cartier-Bresson, in echo with the book of the same title, designed and published by Tériade in 1955, revisited, with Maurice Coriat, again his files. Presented to the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in March 1997, the totality of outtakes from this exhibition was the object, on a proposal from Jean-Stanislas Retel, of a gift from the Reader' s Digest France Foundation.
These photographs illustrate at the same time a style and a practice. They incarnate this perfect moment, transcendent, which mixes emotion and sharp-edged glance.
Henri Cartier-Bresson (August 22, 1908 – August 3, 2004) was a French photographer considered to be the father of modern photojournalism, an early adopter of 35 mm format, and the master of candid photography. He helped develop the "street photography" or "real life reportage" style that has influenced generations of photographers that followed.
Bresson and Maurice Coriat once again dipped into the archives. Presented at the MEP in March 1997, all the prints from this exhibition came from a donation from Reader's Digest France corporate foundation, following a proposal by Jean-Stanislas Retel.
These photographs illustrate both a style and a way of working. They embody the perfect, transcendent moment that combines emotion and a razor-sharp eye. As he wrote, “photography is a like guillotine blade that captures the instant from eternity that has dazzled me”.
The exhibition is organized in collaboration with the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson and in partnership with le Parisien and France Culture.
In parallel with the exhibition at the MEP, from 19 June to 13 September 2009 the Paris Museum of Modern Art presents the reconstitution of an exhibition presented by Henri Cartier-Bresson in 1978.
15 April - 30 August 2009
NB this exhibition will be closed from 15 to 24 June inclusive while new exhibitions are being prepared.
Comments