Henri Cartier-Bresson (French, 1908-2004)

Born in Chanteloup, Seine-et-Marne, Henri Cartier-Bresson is regarded as the father of photojournalism. Initially trained as a painter in the Parisian studio of Cubist painter and sculptor André Lohte, Cartier-Bresson began taking pictures using a hand-held Leica Camera in the early 1930s - his camera of choice thereafter - and his career as a photographer took off, with his first exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York in 1933. Taken prisoner of war in 1940, Cartier-Bresson escaped on his third attempt in 1943 and subsequently joined an underground organization to assist prioners and escapees. In 1945, he photographed the liberation of Paris.  In 1947, Cartier-Bresson founded the co-operative photojournalist agency Magnum Photos with Robert Capa, George Rodger, David 'Chim' Seymour and William Vandivert. As a freelance photographer he travelled extensively, documenting the Communist Revolution in China, the end of the Raj in India, as well as the 1968 Paris riots. In 1952, he published his first book, Images à la Sauvette (published in English as The Decisive Moment). In 1970, he married the photographer Martine Franck. 

In 2003, with his wife and daughter, he created the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris to ensure the preservation of his work.

Image on the right: Henri-Cartier Bresson, 1992 ©Martine Franck/Magnum Photos

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