Henri Cartier-Bresson Commercial Success

Henri Cartier-Bresson Commercial Success Henri Cartier-Bresson was born on August 22, 1908 in Chanteloup, France. A pioneer in photojournalism, Carti- Cartier-Bresson’s rise as a photographer proved rapid. By the mid 1930s he’d shown his work in major exhibits in er-Bresson wandered around the world with his camera, becoming totally immersed in his current environment. Mexico, New York, and Madrid. His images revealed the early raw possibilities of street photography and photo- Considered one of the major artists of the 20th century, he covered many of the world biggest events from the journalism in general. During an exhibit of his prints in New York in 1935 Cartier-Bresson befriended another pho- Spanish Civil War to the French uprisings in 1968. tographer, Paul Strand, who’d begun to experiment with film. Inspired by what he saw, Cartier-Bresson abandoned photography and returned to France where he took work as an assistant with French filmmaker Jean Renoir. Over Biography of his early years the next three years, Cartier-Bresson worked on a handful of Renoir films, including his most critically acclaimed, La Règle Du Jeu (1939). Widely considered one of the leading artistic forces of the 20th century, Henri Cartier-Bresson was born on August 22, 1908 in Chanteloup, France. The oldest of five children, his family was wealthy—his father made a fortune as But the documentarian in Cartier-Bresson had no use or particular talent for directing feature films. Instead, he was a textile manufacturer—but Cartier-Bresson later joked that due to his parents’ frugal ways, it often seemed as drawn to showing real stories about real life. His own life took a dramatic turn in 1940 following the German inva- though his family was poor. sion of France. Cartier-Bresson joined the army but was soon captured by German forces and forced into prison-of- war camp for the next three years. In 1943, after two failed attempts, Cartier-Bresson escaped for good and imme- Educated in Paris, Cartier-Bresson developed an early love for literature and the arts. Creativity was certainly a diately returned to his photography and film work. He created a photo department for the resistance and following part of his DNA. His great-grandfather had been artist and an uncle was a noted printer. Even his father dabbled in the end of the war, was commissioned by the United States to direct a documentary about the return of French drawing. prisoners. As a teenager, Cartier-Bresson rebelled against his parents’ formal ways. Early in his adult life he drifted toward communism. But it was art that remained at the center of his life. In 1927 he began a two-year stint studying painting under noted early Cubist, André Lhote, then moved to Cambridge University to immerse himself further in art and literature courses. Sparked by the avant-garde scene enveloping Paris, and fresh from his release from the Army, which had stationed him just outside Paris, Cartier-Bresson traveled to Africa in 1931 to hunt antelope and boar. Uninterested in actually eating what he’d tracked down, Cartier-Bresson eventually grew tired of the sport and gave it up. But Africa did fuel another interest in him: photography. He experimented with a simple Brownie he’d received as a gift, taking pictures of the new world around him. For Cartier-Bresson there were direct parallels between his old passion and his new one. “I adore shooting photographs,” he’d later note. “It’s like being a hunter. But some hunters are vegetarians—which is my relationship to photography.” In short, as his frustrated editors would soon discover, Cartier-Bresson preferred This is a photo of a few women and children, all looking to the same taking shots rather than making prints and showing his work. direction and crying sorrowfully. This photo is called a grieving woman with young boy, Cyprus. The setting of this photo looks like the streets of a poor village. This photo supports the rule of thirds, because the Upon returning to France later that year, Cartier-Bresson purchased his first 35mm Leica, a camera whose simple focus of the photo is on the woman at the intersection of the grid of style and stunning results would help define the photographer’s work. thirds. The image is high contrast, but the photographer must not have used flash photography because the light source is not coming from the For the rest of his life, in fact, Cartier-Bresson’s approach to photography would remain much the same. He made side of the camera. The thing that stands out most is the emotions of the picture.. The emotion and mood is very strong on the woman’s face This photo is called Rue Mouffetard, named after the paris street in clear his disdain for the augmented image, one that had been enhanced by artificial light, dark room effects, even and the image itself is also very strong because of its high contrast and which the photograph was taken on. It shows a young boy walking cropping. The naturalist in Cartier-Bresson believed that all edits should be done when the image was made. His bold lines. down the street, smiling proudly with a bottle of wine held in each of equipment load was often light: a 50mm lens and if he needed it, a longer 90mm lens. his hands. The composition of this photo is very simple, focusing on the young In his 1952 landmark monograph The Decisive Moment, he defined his philosophy: “To me, photography is the si- boy. It does not follow the rule of thirds as the main focus is in the middle. The photographer used natural daylight in his photography, multaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization giving the photo a natural tone. The photo was taken from above of forms which gave that event its proper expression.” eye-level/ from a higher angle of the boy. The mood of the photo is very delightful and relaxed, because the tone of the photo is light and Cartier-Bresson was drafted into the French army in 1940. He was taken prisoner by the Germans but escaped on natural. Henri Cartier-Bresson was known for his collection “The Deci- sive Moment” and he said that he would stand at a spot for a long pe- his third attempt and joined the French Resistance. In 1946, he assisted in the preparation of a “posthumous” show riod of time with his camera and wait for something interesting to hap- of his work organized by the Museum of Modern Art in New York in the mistaken belief that he had been killed in pen. When he saw something interesting, he would then take a photo. the war. He didn’t find the subjects in his photo, he waited for them to come to him, which is probably why the mood of his photographs, including In 1966, Cartier-Bresson quit Magnum and began to turn his focus to where it had once been: on drawing and Rue Mouffetard, is shown as very relaxing and humorous photographs. painting. He disdained doing interviews and refused to talk much about his previous career as a photographer, seemingly content to bury himself in his notebooks, sketching out landscapes and figurines. In 2003, Cartier-Bresson, along with his wife and daughter, took an important step in securing his legacy as an artist with the creation of the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris in an effort to preserve his work. His later years would also see him awarded numerous awards and honorary doctorates for his work. URL:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Cartier-Bresson Just a few weeks shy of his 96th birthday, Henri Cartier-Bresson passed away at his home in Provence on August 3, http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/dec/23/henri-cartier-bresson-the-decisive-moment-reissued-photography 2004. http://www.biography.com/people/henri-cartier-bresson-9240139 David Bailey Biography David Bailey was born in London, England in 1938. Bailey did poorly at school due to undetected dyslexia and ir- regular wartime schooling. Cinema influenced Bailey’s work. He was a member of the British Royal Air Force based in Singapore. In 1959, he started working for photographer John French. In 1960, he freelanced and began his career as a fashion photographer, working for numerous magazines, including Vogue, Elle and Glamour, and for many British newspapers. Using a 35 mm single-lens reflex enabled him to shoot outdoors. Spontaneity of gesture and the incorporation of random elements brought a filmic quality to his photographs that reflected his enthusiasm for French New Wave cinema. After finishing his national service in 1958, Bailey secured a job with David Olin, who was then the main supplier of photos to Queen Magazine. In 1959 he became an assistant to fashion photographer John French in London. In 1960, at 22, he was already working as a freelancer for British Vogue, and soon became almost as famous as the people he was photographing: fashion designer Mary Quant, and everyone who was involved in Bazaar, the Beat- les and the Rolling Stones, The Who, singers Marianne Faithfull and Sandie Shaw, actresses Mia Farrow, Catherine Deneuve and Geraldine Chaplin, actors Peter Sellers and Michael Caine, and models Jean Shrimpton, Twiggy and Penelope Tree. Bailey also photographed the period’s current fashions on the streets of London and New York for In this photograph David Bailey has also used a white magazines like American Vogue and Glamour.

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