Bruxelles, Belgique

Henri Cartier-Bresson

1932 · Gelatin silver print · Photographs

In 1931, Henri Cartier-Bresson began to make photographs influenced by Cubism and Surrealism—with bold, flat planes, collage-like compositions, and spatial ambiguity. Within a year, he began traveling in Europe and Mexico, developing what would become one of the hallmarks of twentieth-century photographic style. Cartier-Bresson defined his philosophy: "To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which gave that event its proper expression." This extraordinarily rare vintage print was made by the artist himself in the 1930s, before the master printer Pierre Gassmann began developing and printing nearly all of Cartier-Bresson’s negatives after 1950.

Artist

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Date

1932

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Gilman Collection, Purchase, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Gift, 2005