As I begin writing the afterword to this issue entitled "Coup d'oeil Americain", I am aware that although I have met Henri Cartier-Bresson, talked to him and made the final selection of pictures with his consent, I do not in fact know him. I can, however, say in all truth that I understand him. There is a great difference in knowledge and cognition. In my relationship with H. C.-B., understanding is more important than knowledge concerning his work.
Henri Cartier-Bresson was born in 1908 and his education. which is specifically related to his growth in the arts, began with the study of painting in 1923. He later studied with cubist painter Andre~ Lhote in 1927-1928. He began to photograph in 1931, and at the age of 24 in 1932 he bought a Leica camera. A first exhibition of photographs was arranged by Julian Levy in New York and later an exhibit in Spain. In the same year Andre' Vogel published his first reportage in 'Vu'. In 1935 when he was in America he worked in cinema with Paul Strand. In 1936 and 1939 he assisted Jean Renoir along with Jacques Becker and Andre Swoboda. These were the years that had formed Bresson and prepared him for an unique future in photography, cinema and drawing.
The surrealism movement had an important influence on the development of the young Henri, as indeed it did on most of the cultural life and society of the time. Cartier-Bresson was formed by surrealism as a discipline in life, and to this day he adheres to the essence and true meaning of the nomenclature of surrealism. Adherence to the manifests and declarations
of the movement should not, however, be confused with a surface quality effect, for it is the cerebral and intellectual cause which has up till now been influential on most art forms.
Sketching and notations of life around are still Cartier-Bresson's main occupation in life, and for this he makes use of both the pencil and the lens. This has been an intuitive reaction throughout his life's work, and his contributions have been distributed throughout the three chosen media. His constant involvement with notating results in photography, cinema and painting/drawing. for the three media are his means of understanding life, a way of elaboration or looking at the essence of the thing.
It was only three years ago that he actually began to draw, and his interpretations and elaborations with the pencil are as meaningful and exalting as those he produced with the other media with which he had previously become involved. He has an acute need for expression, and in discovering his media he comprehends that the essence is more important than the medium itself. He recollects that his primary influence was painting, and throughout his whole life and travels he has constantly found himself in the halls of museums and galleries, visiting, perusing, and studying the works with intense concentration. 'There are two main areas of creativity in the fields I have chosen', says Cartier-Bresson. 'There is "Invention" and there is "Discovery". I have chosen and adhered to discovery in my photography-I am not interested in inventing.
A picture hangs upon the wall of his dining room. It's rare to see a photograph among the paintings and drawings of the accident and the orient. This is a reproduction of a 1930 photograph and an image which has influenced him from the first time he saw it. Like names, it is unimportant for Cartier-Bresson to mention them as much as it is important to show the image with which he became enthusiastically enriched.
In his introduction to 'The Decisive Moment (published by Simon and Schuster, New York, 1952) Henri Cartier-Bresson explains his ideas on photography, and this introduction has been widely used by students and instructors to clarify the field of reportage and photography in general. He was able to formulate his ideas and goals, his causes and effects articulately in this introduction. The following passage explains H. C.-B.'s ideas on the making of a reportage-at the time translated into English as 'PICTURE STORY
'What actually is a photographic reportage, a picture- story? Sometimes there is one unique picture whose composition possesses such vigor and richness, and whose content so radiates outward from it, that this single picture is a whole story in itself. But this rarely happens. The elements which, together, can strike sparks out of a subject are often scattered-either in terms of space or time-and bringing them together by force is "stage management", and, I feel, cheating. But if it is possible to make pictures of the "core" as well as the struck-off sparks of the subject this is a picture-story; and the page serves to reunite the complementary elements which are dispersed throughout several photographs.
The picture-story involves a joint operation of the brain, the eye, and the heart. The objective of this joint operation is to depict the content of some event which is in the process of unfolding, and to communicate impressions. Sometimes a single event can be so rich in itself and its facets that it is necessary to move all around it in your search for the solution to the problems it poses~for the world is movement, and you cannot be stationary in your attitude toward something that is moving. Sometimes you light upon the picture in seconds; it might also require hours or days. But there is no standard plan, no pattern from which to work. You must be on the alert with the brain, the eye, the heart: and have a suppleness of body.'
In his small essay on Henri Cartier-Bresson, 'Looking at Photographs', John Szarkowski of the Museum of Modern Art denotes a critic's perception in the work and labels given to artists.
'Henri Cartier-Bresson has described himself as a photojournalist a label doubtless no more misleading than any other available. To put the identification in a fuller perspective, it might be added that he is probably the only photojournalist to have studied painting with Andrd Lhote, the chief academician of Cubism, and also that relatively few of his pictures are concerned with journalistic events in that many of his finest pictures have been made not on
assignment but out of amateur's fascination with the world about him: but this is of course true of most important photographers. A photographer's best work is, alas, generally done for himself.'
(From 'Looking at Photographs' by John Szarkowski page 112,100 pictures from the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York City.)
The following reply from Cartier-Bresson to his friend John Szarkowski was written after he had received the book 'Looking at Photographs' and questions the appellation of photojournalism as a title. 'Dear John, Many thanks for the beautiful book "Looking at Photographs". "May I give you the reason for that label "photojournalism" and tell you who suggested it. It was Robert Capa. when I had my exhibition in 1948 at the MOMA, who told me to be very careful about any label which is attached to anybody's work, and on such occasions he warned me: If the label "Surrealism" is attached to you" (because after all. it is "surrealism, as a conception of life, which is maybe the strongest influence on me though not especially surrealist painting) you will have an exhibition once in a while and your work will become precious and confidential. Keep on doing what you want, but use the name "photojournalism". which will put you in direct contact with what is going on in the world" So let it be, Henri.
Some twenty years ago, a whole issue of Camera was devoted to Henri Cartier-Bresson at the time of his exhibition in the Louvre in Paris. The curator of photography of the George Eastman House. Beaumont Newhall, wrote the introduction to the issue. and the following passage from it is one of the few personal accounts ever written about Cartier-Bresson. 'I met Cartier-Bresson during his visit to America in 1946. During the first of our many discussions on photography it became very clear to me that he was a master of his craft and by no means the chance camera clicker" as he was wrongly assumed to be. I knew. of course, that he used only small format cameras and that, ever since he had acquired his first Leica in Marseilles, in 1932. he had been recognized as a champion of this type of camera. I did not know. however, how very important the use of a small-format camera was for Carter- Bresson's work. Although we cannot explain his art in terms of the use of a particular type of camera, we can gain an insight into his methods of working by considering the characteristics of the modern 35-mm precision camera: Since these cameras are relatively small, the photographer is not hindered by cumbersome equipment. He has unlimited freedom of movement and can take his camera everywhere he goes.
The inconspicuousness of the camera makes it possible for the photographer to work equally as inconspicuously. It is possible to take 36 photographs one after the other in a short space of time. Small format cameras can be equipped with large aperture-i.e. high-speed-lenses. With this optimal equipment it is possible to photograph in poor light and indoors with the artificial light available on the spot
Cartier-Bresson calls his camera "the extension of my eye". Unlike most other professional photographers, he takes his camera everywhere he goes. He works at an incredible speed. I remember the following scene: we were having lunch with some friends on the terrace of a Paris restaurant when I noticed that Cartier-Bresson was setting his camera which lay on his lap under the tablecloth. I asked him what he had in mind, but he raised his finger to his lips, drew back his chair, stood up. raised his camera and sat down again immediately. I had not noticed that there was a famous painter sitting at a table at the other end of the terrace. My friend, however, had taken his portrait in a split second. Although his camera is really inconspicuous, it remains a mystery to me how Cartier-Bresson manages to make himself invisible-one could almost believe that he possessed a cloak of invisibility. When we went for walks in Paris with our wives, it often happened that Henri would suddenly disappear. We found him again a few minutes later, waiting patiently on the next corner. We only learned what he had seen and photographed when the film was developed.' by Beaumont Newhall, Curator of the George Eastman House (Camera, October 1955, The Decisive Moment 'Thoughts on Henri Cartier-Bresson and his Extraordinary Talent.')
H. C.-B. is not so much a phenomenon in this, the twentieth century as an artist with a unique sense of imagery and an understanding in his way of seeing. The idea of learning to understand what one sees was primarily formulated by masters and teachers in the 19th century-e.g. by P. H. Emerson in his 'Naturalistic Photography' and later through Alfred Stieglitz's 'Straight Photography'-and this stream of thought has been carried on through the imagery of Henri Cartier-Bresson. H. C.-B. was neither a reactionary to the photographic circles nor a member of any real group. Time and space is apt to label movements and styles; categories are created to classify individuals, but there are always a few personalities who hold fast to their original ideas and concepts which they have built brick by brick to the point when it becomes apparent who and what they are, and the body of their work becomes an individual thing rather than a part of a school of thought formulated by some critic or other. H. C.-B. stands well above most of our twentieth-century talents, and he alone is in a position to determine whom he has really influenced. He is aware of photography in all its aspects, and he has participated in almost every area of photography in both its commercial and cultural facets. Like all great men in all fields, he is first a citizen of the world and second a member of his profession. A. P.
EDITOR'S NOTE
'Coup d'oeil Americain' (approximate translation:
'Sizing up') is a unique concept which was created in a rather unorthodox manner.I had the opportunity of meeting Henri Cartier-Bresson in Zürich rich last year at the vernissage of his exhibition of drawings at the Bischofberger Gallery. During our conversation I mentioned that I would like to do a special issue for the American Bicentennial-but from an unusual point of view: photographs of America from post World War II until today by a contemporary European. I mentioned that I thought that he would be the right photographer for the project and asked him to think about it and let me know. Later on on the same evening he mentioned that he had wanted to do an American book with Lincoln Kirstein in 1945, but the project was never realized. I cannot remember exactly when he committed himself to doing this issue, but I know that on December 26th 1975 I received an early morning phone call from H. C.-B. who was on a visit to Switzerland. We discussed the schedule for printing, and he agreed to start selecting from his files so as to be to make the pre- and final selections in April. I went to Paris in April, and, over 4 to 5 days of intense concentration and with assistance from others, we conceived this issue. This is possibly the first time that Cartier-Bresson has worked in this way, and this issue is different in that the subject and the subject matter is of equal importance with the imagery' itself. The issue is not meant to be a summing-up of the best of Cartier-Bresson, nor is it intended as a repeat of any of his previous books, articles or exhibitions; what it aspires to be is a unique, cohesive whole-as it were a new work by Cartier-Bresson. In all events, his a rare contribution by a great contemporary photographer.
NOTE: how I contacted Lincoln Kirstein and the Posthumous Exhibit at the Modern