Henri Cartier-Bresson is one of this century's leading photographers and his career has profoundly influenced the field. His earliest images are of Europe in the 1930s and 40s; he later traveled throughout the world -- to the United States, India, Japan, China, Mexico, the Soviet Union -- to frame the world with his camera.
A superb anthology of photographs by H Cartier - Bresson covering a number of themes (portraits- mostly, buildings, Public spaces, the Seine and various events) all based in Paris. A good introductory essay creates the frame for the photographs that follow. Most photographs are printed 15cm x 22cm.
This book just takes my breath away and it is worth a trip to Paris to find the locations and try to recapture his images yourself. Arrived quickly and well packaged A**** seller
The title is in French, but the book is in English. Actually, there is little text here at all--a few words at the beginning by HCB just to let us know that the rest of the text, that in front by Vera Feyder and at the end by Andre Pieyre de Mandiargues, are included at his request. They both were originally written to accompany the catalogue of his Paris exhibition of photographs, "Paris at a Glan ce" in 1984. Each page has only a page number, a photo and the year the picture was taken (the titles are listed at the end of the book). With no words to distract a viewer, the images take center stage on every page.
Cartier Bresson personally selected these 130 photographs for publication. and they have been well-produced in black-white duotone. I have my favorites, but enjoy looking and relooking at them all--often having a new appreciation for a picture I had previously just glanced at. We now have so many options with cameras, but HCB worked with a Leica with a "normal field of view" through a 50mm lens (equivalent to many digital camera's 35mm lens today). This is an essential collection for any photographer.