Henri Cartier-Bresson was considered the father of modern photojournalism. He was born in 1908 in Sicily and developed an interest in painting and surrealism in the 1920s. In the 1930s, he spent time in the Ivory Coast photographing in Europe and Mexico. In the 1940s, he photographed portraits of famous artists in Paris and co-founded the photo agency Magnum Photos. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Cartier-Bresson continued traveling the world to photograph important events and moments using only his 35mm Leica camera. He is renowned for his ability to capture the "decisive moment" that gives meaning and order to events.

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Henri Cartier-Bresson
1908-2004
Ammar Jiwaji
Considered to be the father of modern photojournalism
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Chronology
• 1908 - Born in Sicily
• 1923 - Develops interest in painting and surrealism
• 1931 - Spends the year in Ivory Coast and Travels and photographs in Europe
• 1934 - Spends a year in Mexico with an ethnographic expedition
• 1935 - Photographs New York with Paul Strand
• 1944-45 - Takes a series of portraits of Matisse, Picasso, Braque and others.
• 1946 - Works on ‘posthumous’ exhibition at MoMA
• 1947 - Co-founds Magnum Photos
• 1948-50 - Travels to the Far-East, India and China.
• 1952 - Published “The Decisive Moment”, cover by Matisse. His biggest
breakthrough
• 1953 - 2004 - Continued to take on photojournalism projects around the world
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Tools
• Only used his 35mm Leica camera w/
50mm lens
• Painted the camera’s shiny parts in
black
• Never photographed with a flash
Photography is, for me, a
spontaneous impulse coming from an
ever attentive eye which captures the
moment and its eternity.
- Henri Cartier-Bresson
Ivory Coast, 1931
Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare Paris,
France 1932

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Brussels Belgium, 1932 Heyeres, France 1932
For he has the capacity to capture the
precise moment when events make
sense within the order of the logical
universe...
- Jean Clair
Italy, 1933
Madrid, Spain, 1933 Madrid, Spain 1933

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The Decisive Moment Book Cover by Mattise
1952
There is nothing in this world that
does not have a decisive moment
- Henri Cartier-Bresson
Trafalgar Square on the day of Coronotation of George IV,
London, Great Britain 1937
Manhattan, New York, USA 1947
Kiss Dancers in a Trance, Batubulan, Bali,
Indonesia, 1949
Funeral George IV, Trafalgar Square,
London, Great Britain 1952

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The condensed form of thought that is
the language of photography, has a
great power [which is] that of a
making a judgement on what we see,
and that implies great responsibility
-
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Demonstration, Paris, France 1958
Tarascon, France 1959 Berlin Wall, West Germany 1962
Bremen, West Germany 1962
For IBM, Man and Machine