Last Days of the Kuomintang, Peking, 1949

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier-Bresson shaped the field of photography with his lively, candid black-and-white pictures, which embraced documentarian intimacy and poetic dynamism. His concept of the “decisive moment,” in which photographers must snap their shutters at the exact right time to achieve the ideal shot, was particularly influential among photojournalism and street photography circles. Cartier-Bresson studied literature for a year at the University of Cambridge and began experimenting with photography on trips to Europe, the Ivory Coast, and Mexico. After World War II, Cartier-Bresson founded the major photography cooperative Magnum Photos alongside fellow photography icons Robert Capa, George Rodger, and David "Chim" Seymour. He has exhibited in London, New York, Paris, Mexico City, Zürich, and Tokyo. His work belongs in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art, the International Center of Photography, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the J. Paul Getty Museum. In addition to his photography, Cartier-Bresson produced a number of drawings, paintings, and films.