Henri Cartier-Bresson, beyond the 'decisive moment' and photographing the fleeting scene.

[je ne regrette rien]

One of the most important photographers of the 20th century: for his expressive capacity, his narrative ability combined with the eye of the anthropologist, as well as his innovative vision of the world of photographic communication.

Yet the commonplace simply sees him as the forerunner of "street photography" and the master of the capture of the decisive moment. I felt the urgent need to look into this narrative, to rectify this generalised simplification, to carefully consider whether it is appropriate to associate Cartier-Bresson merely with fast reaction, with speed, with the highly expressive single photograph.

HCB was actually much else and much more: active from 1926 to 1974, the year in which he parted company with Magnum Photos, he not only set out on a path that led him to refine his aesthetics, photographing early in his life, but also painting, but above all confronting artists and creative people of his time. He turned to the documentation of his society, to the description of peoples, and foreign lands, as well as to political and anthropological analysis, and declared that photography alone rarely is able to sustain a narrative. As a young man, he was born in 1908, he travels, lives in Africa, where he photographs, falls seriously ill, even tries to take a wife but does not have the required financial means. He cannot get his rolls of film developed and will be able to review them only view after his return home.

True, Henri was born a painter and photographer, but this talent for representation through images is always aimed at documentation. The photograph 'Juvisy, Dimanche sur les bords de la Marne, France 1938', for example, does not have the intent of Manet's 'Déjeuner sur l'herbe', but rather portray, like many other of his images, the emergence of the 'leisure time' of the French working class, based on a law of 1936 that introduced paid holidays.

In the volume 'Henri Cartier-Bresson', published at the same time as the large 2014 exhibition at the Centre Pompidou, Clément Chéroux describes the photographer's work as the product of a combination of factors: “a certain artistic inclination, an assiduous apprenticeship, a bit of the atmosphere of the period, personal aspirations, many encounters”. He is a young man with a middle-class background who challenges his roots and searches for his own expressive pathways, strongly attracted by surrealism, but also by a militant commitment and the sharing of communist political positions: "anti-colonialism, support of the Spanish republicans, and a deep faith in the need to change life". He was a photoreporter for the communist press, working on social issues, the working-class condition.

After the war - he had been a member of the resistance and had been taken prisoner - he was commissioned by the National Movement of War Prisoners and Deportees to make a film to document the return of captives. When he picks up the film camera to record the “trial” of a female prison camp guard, his photographic instincts take over, he suddenly hands the film camera over to his colleague and with the still camera he produces a very strong sequence, which includes this iconic image. His colleague pointed out that the that the same still frame must have been there, in the film sequence, but Cartier-Bresson factually proves that no, it isn't there, that the still photographs are unique.

As his friend Ferdinando Scianna recounts in a long and passioned 2019 lecture, HCB had long been searching for what to do in life and how to relate to photography. "Henri was always escaping: from his family, from his bourgeois background, from his destiny, from painting, from himself, and ultimately from photography itself."

On the Magnum Photos website we read that, after the Second World War, 

“Back in France, I was completely lost,” ... “At the time of the liberation, the world having been disconnected, people had a new curiosity. I had a little bit of money from my family, which allowed me to avoid working in a bank. I had been engaged in looking for the photo for itself, a little like one does with a poem."

As we can see, bank employment had an undeniable 'appeal' for a long time.

Robert Capa, his friend and partner in Magnum, told him: "Don't keep the label of a surrealist photographer. Be a photojournalist. If not you will fall into mannerism. Keep surrealism in your little heart, my dear. Don’t fidget. Get moving!” (from the Magnum website).

Henri Cartier-Bresson worked for Magnum, he invented with his partners a new business model, still in place today, which did not include the transfer of ownership of the works but only the granting of the right of use. "They came from the very hard experience of war but also experienced the difficult relationship with publishing" (Scianna).

This was the reason for the use of the black frame, which was simply the 'seal' of the framing desired by the photographer, to avoid cropping for layout requirements. Although our Cartier-Bresson is convinced that no photograph can become good by cropping it - even if he did so with "Derrière la gare Saint-Lazare, 1932" - the black border is not in itself an indicator of composition skills, but only the guarantee of the authenticity of the photographer's choice.

HCB is not merely the “photographer of the decisive moment”, he is a “storyteller by images”: in his The mind's eye (p. 23-24) he says “What actually is a photographic reportage, a picture story ? Sometimes we have a single image whose composition possesses such vigour and richness, and whose content so radiates from it in such a way, that this single image is an whole story in itself. But this rarely happens. The elements that, taken together, can strike sparks from a subject are often scattered - either in terms of time and space - and bringing them together by force is ’stage management', and, I feel, a contrived. But if one can make photographs of the ‘core’ and also of the sparks that emanate from the subject, this is a picture story. The page serves to reunite the complementary elements dispersed throughout several photographs”.

"The picture story requires a joint operation of brain, eye and heart. The aim of this joint operation is to depict the content of an unfolding event and to communicate impressions". Scianna explains this statement, highlighting the need to ensure a balance between perception and knowledge (brain), aesthetics (eye) and feeling (heart). An excess of the brain risks excess rationality, an excess of the eye excessive aesthetisation, an excess of the heart romanticism.

Unless one photographs upon a mere technical drive or for photography as an end in itself (it happens), image-making starts from life, from human events, from relationships, from passions, from human beings. It is necessary to research, to understand, to study and above all to be enthusiastic. This is what Cartier-Bresson concretely pursued.

He perfectly interpreted his time, the people in "a completely disconnected world" who also had a need to know, to understand how societies were changing after the trauma of the World War II. Newspapers and magazines showed places, people and events that the majority in those years would never have seen in person. Cartier-Bresson focused on Asia and in fact travelled to China, India, Russia, photographed Mahatma Gandhi shortly before his assassination, the Russian people and Chinese peasants. From 1947 to the early 1970s he travelled to all corners of the world and worked for almost all the major international illustrated newspapers.

"Images à la sauvette" or "The decisive moment", from 1952, and reissued in 2014, should therefore not be seen and read as a collection of single shots, but rather as a varied portfolio that opens up a perspective on the photographer's enormous anthropological and documentation work in his first 25 years as a photographer.

The 'decisive moment', in its actual meaning, Scianna tells us, is not about the real in its elusive moment, but about the photographer's gaze and the moment in which he decides to represent the real by clicking the shutter. The decisive moment is not a passive dynamic to be pursued, but rather a conscious decision about the scene and its unfolding.

It is well known that book titles have a commercial function. ‘Capturing the decisive moment' is certainly a catchy inception, evoking speed, quick reactions, scenes that only the photographer has seen and can show us. On the contrary, HCB was someone who maintained that in places and with people it was necessary to live, that the photographer could not be a 'tourist' arriving and leaving.

Chéroux calls him a 'visual anthropologist' who develops 'investigations, thematic and transversal, described ... as a "combination of reportage, philosophy and analysis (social, psychological and other)", investigations that open wide windows on a rapidly changing world.

Speed and timeliness are therefore not appropriate attributes for an author who has defined the principles of storytelling through images and visual anthropology and who has always independently decided on his narrative line and timing.

It is barely worth pointing out that the world today is no longer 'completely disconnected', on the contrary, it is completely interconnected, physically and virtually. It is important to 'be there', even if only with a mobile phone, and often those who 'are there' are not professional photographers, or even anthropologists.

Edited January 14, 2023 by je ne regrette rien

[c_watson1]

What's point here? Can't see anything that's not long available. BTW, C-B, nor his family, were likely ever hurting for money.

[maris_rusis]

I agree with c_watson1 that Henri Cartier-Bresson was the scion of a very rich family. He never had to work and lived an indulged and privileged life. How does a young man who has never done a tap of paid employment start photography with an expensive Leica camera that would cost a labourer half a years wages?

One precaution in studying the career of Henri Cartier-Bresson is to cautiously discount everything he said or wrote about himself or his activities. I see the hagiography by je ne regrette rien as not a convincing guide to the real Henri Cartier-Bresson.

[samstevens]

The pictures tell his story more than his family, station, or wealth. Not sure why to whom you were born should be a strike against you. I respect HCB and get a lot out of his work. For me, his captures of the city are not unlike Adams’s captures of Yosemite, classically seen and precisely rendered. For street, I prefer the storytelling, passion, and intimacy of Brassai, who hits me a little more in the gut. “Decisive moment,” somewhat like “I think, therefore I am”, set the scene for years as a way to frame photography and the human condition respectively. Both advanced important insights while also forcing their disciplines into a box that would undergird the vocabulary and grammar of each, sometimes delimiting too restrictively possibilities that didn’t fit those strictures. 
 

[inoneeye]

• "The pictures tell his story . . . "  surely not the size of the camera.

    
•  

 

 

. . . storytelling, passion, and intimacy of Brassai, who hits me a little more in the gut -  👍 

 

[je ne regrette rien]

While there are photographers I am much more interested in and I love more, I think it is worth knowing Cartier-Bresson because of his role in photography in the 20th century. As such I consider him part of history.

Since he is so famous, he is often mentioned, mis-referenced and basically not known. I don’t think he’s a street photographer, except for the fact that streets are the “theatre” of a lot of what happens in societies.

He photographed what he was, and knowing who he was and where he came from helps to understand his photos better.

And I personally think that even if the concept of “the Decisive Moment” is appealing, in modern photography it certainly obsolete.

[samstevens]

Every street photographer is more than a street photographer. I would find it hard if not self defeating to make a coherent case for Bresson not being a street photographer. But such a categorization, as you seem to suggest, doesn’t have to be restrictive. Most categorizations are just a start and often more a matter of housekeeping than a more full experience of the photos or art itself. Avedon’s and Arbus’s portraits are more than portraits just as Mapplethorpe’s and Blossfeldt’s flowers are more than flowers and Fukase’s ravens are more than examples of bird photography. All their photos can tell us about both photographer and subject. The breadth any viewer wants to give to any photo or work of art is often more than what’s on the surface but the surface can be a key and, as Avedon says, the surface has many clues …

Knowing who a photographer was and where they came from can help us understand their photos better just as knowing their place in photographic history can and knowing the zeitgeist of the times in which they lived can. Judgments about their families, their backgrounds, their politics, their personal social behavior don’t necessarily translate to judgments about their work. In fact, judgments about them as people can as easily cloud an understanding or appreciation of their photos as much as shed light on them.

IMO, the decisive moment isn’t obsolete so much as it’s got a significant but not monopolizing place in a more contemporary photographic vocabulary. 

Edited January 15, 2023 by samstevens

[c_watson1]

Thanks, FredG, for saying very little at great length.

[je ne regrette rien]

1 hour ago, samstevens said:

Judgments about their families, their backgrounds, their politics, their personal social behavior don’t necessarily translate to judgments about their work.

I don't think that was me.

Nor do I think that I was judgmental.

In fact I think Fernando Scianna nails it when he says:

15 hours ago, je ne regrette rien said:

"Henri was always escaping: from his family, from his bourgeois background, from his destiny, from painting, from himself, and ultimately from photography itself."

On street photography: there was a time I was irritated by the concept. Now I have adjusted my attitude. We may have the chance to discuss it in the future.

[samstevens]

3 minutes ago, je ne regrette rien said:

I don't think that was me.

It wasn’t. I was responding to various things said in the thread.

[JDMvW]

Never believe any artist, especially graphic ones, when they account for/justify their work.

I am especially aware of this because I am the sole materialist/scientist in a whole family of painters, singers, writers, etc.

[inoneeye]

I have no problem believing any artist who has a visual language that parallels their spoken language. HCB for example… And I enjoy hearing their take even if I don’t see it. Sometimes I don’t see it until I open myself and step back and hear it. 
listening and seeing can be rewarding.

“Listen to understand not respond” Barack Obama

Edited January 15, 2023 by inoneeye

[inoneeye]

correcting my bad paraphrasing 🙄

"listen to understand rather than listen to respond."
Barack Obama

[donbright]

So funny, Resurrected are these HCB Psyche dissections of how he did it!! HA! Ha! Ha! There are a hundred of these. You'll never know what drove this man, rich family or not.

He was one of the best because he woke up every day with excruciating enthusiasm for life and the spirit of curiosity, patience, a sense of just 

 loving life that translated through his camera and there are," HUNDREDS!' Of his images that are," OFF THE CHARTS! Oh, and by the way, there is also great

imagery of the modern era. 

[je ne regrette rien]

On 1/15/2023 at 2:24 PM, samstevens said:

Every street photographer is more than a street photographer.

My point is that street photography is both a concept with blurred borders and also some kind of “comfortable place” where all kinds of photographic styles are fitted. A definition of photography which accommodates everything in fact defines nothing.

In my experience, to feel comfortable we need to label and categorise, and often it doesn’t help if these labels are not defined.

Edited January 16, 2023 by je ne regrette rien

[samstevens]

8 minutes ago, je ne regrette rien said:

My point is that street photography is both a concept with blurred borders and also some kind of “comfortable place” where all kinds of photographic styles are fitted. A definition of photography which accommodates everything in fact defines nothing.

In my experience, to feel comfortable we need to label and categorise, and often it doesn’t help if these labels are not defined.

I’m not disagreeing with any of that. My point was that, in so many ways Bresson defines street photography, so it was odd to hear you say, “I don’t think he’s a street photographer.”

[AlanKlein]

I'm not sure psychoanalyzing a photographer has anything to do with their photos.  We see the same thing happening with Vivian Meier.  People seem to be very nosey about other people especially famous and successful ones.  Can't we just love or hate the photos by themselves? 

[samstevens]

There’s an important difference between nosiness and curiosity. I suspect the latter was the motivation behind this thread. Some people will want to just love or hate the photos and there’s nothing wrong with that. Others, like me, especially because I’m a photographer, find it interesting to learn other photographers’ motivations and how the background of photographers I respect may have impacted their methods and work. 

I didn’t find equal value in everything written in the OP, to be honest. But, if the author of this thread did, more power to him. No reason it would bother me. 

[je ne regrette rien]

My post is not meant to praise or judge. I recognise it’s very long, possibly too long for a screen or some online readers. There are quite a few references to other sources and authors and the intention was to inform myself. And maybe make this available to fellow humans, being aware that they may be interested or not.

Because HCB is certainly a very important photographer of the 20th century.

My personal views:

• Is he the most important photographer of all times? Not in my opinion.
• Was he an interesting character? Certainly yes.
• Do I see contradictions and conflicts? Certainly yes.
• Did he produce quite a few interesting/attractive/aesthetically compelling photos? Certainly yes.
• Are his photos the most interesting possible ever made? Absolutely not.
• Can I, and others, learn from HCB in photographic terms? Yes, if we wish so or are inclined to do so.
• Does he give me insights into some decades of the 20th century? Sure, like several other photographers.
• Are there other photographers to consider? Yes, absolutely.

That said, I was interested in knowing and understanding this photographer, but there are other hundreds I like to look at. And I think I should look forward, at those authors who conceive new ways to portray and show the modern humanity.

Which is what I’m interested in.

Well over ten years ago I was trying hard to find out what makes a good photo or a good set of photos.

Now I do know.

Edited January 17, 2023 by je ne regrette rien

[AlanKlein]

11 hours ago, samstevens said:

There’s an important difference between nosiness and curiosity. I suspect the latter was the motivation behind this thread. Some people will want to just love or hate the photos and there’s nothing wrong with that. Others, like me, especially because I’m a photographer, find it interesting to learn other photographers’ motivations and how the background of photographers I respect may have impacted their methods and work. 

I didn’t find equal value in everything written in the OP, to be honest. But, if the author of this thread did, more power to him. No reason it would bother me. 

I just as curious as the next guy and enjoy reading about famous people including artists.  My point is sometimes we overdo analyzing the artist to figure out their work based on their mental makeup.  That can be overdone.  And often wrong. 

[samstevens]

From Cartier-Bresson's Magnum page:

“Cartier-Bresson found the expression ‘the decisive moment’ much too limiting because he was also very interested in psychoanalysis and the subconscious. He talked a lot about what André Breton had taught him. Breton taught him to search through the rubble of the subconscious.

Those are some pretty important things to know. It’s not just any photographer who thinks like that, so this notion of the ‘decisive moment’ obscures all that. It’s very precise, very literal. It doesn’t take into account all the different temporalities of photography, of the subconscious, of the past, of the day before.”

Quote

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. 
—Henri Cartier-Bresson

"questions and decides simultaneously" ... I like that.

[inoneeye]

👍 I like it. Keeping in mind that the narrative may not be ‘finished’. For HCB it was.

Edited January 17, 2023 by inoneeye

[je ne regrette rien]

If I understand well, we seem to reach similar conclusions.

The point here is not to analyse HCB. Where he comes from helps understanding his photographs. What his subconscious was nobody can really know.

Again I say:

Quote

You photograph what you are. And in a visual work you see what you know.

I'll move on, then.

[samstevens]

Funny that deciding can be an end (of the process of questioning) and a beginning (of the narrative to unfold). I think my favorite photos show both questioning and deciding, the latter in the sense not of an ending but rather of a commitment. On the other hand, I find the majority of photos I’m met with each day to seem as if they were pre-ordained, already decided based on what’s already thought to be a good photo or an established reason to take one. 

[samstevens]

Quote

You photograph what you are.

That's a little too calcified.

I find myself as often photographing what I'm not or what I want to be or what I'm not sure of or ...

For me, photography has been as much about changing myself as reflecting who I am.

Photos offer possibilities in addition to what is.

"As far as men go, it is not what they are that interests me, but what they can become."
—Jean-Paul Sartre