Early life Henri Cartier-Bresson

1 life

1.1 painting
1.2 surrealists photography influence
1.3 cambridge , army
1.4 receives first camera
1.5 escape africa
1.6 photography

early life

henri cartier-bresson born in chanteloup-en-brie, seine-et-marne, france, oldest of 5 children. father wealthy textile manufacturer, cartier-bresson thread staple of french sewing kits. mother s family cotton merchants , landowners normandy, henri spent part of childhood. cartier-bresson family lived in bourgeois neighborhood in paris, rue de lisbonne, near place de l europe , parc monceau. parents supported him financially henri pursue photography more freely contemporaries. henri sketched.

young henri took holiday snapshots box brownie; later experimented 3×4 inch view camera. raised in traditional french bourgeois fashion, , required address parents formal vous rather tu. father assumed son take family business, henri strong-willed , feared prospect.

cartier-bresson attended École fénelon, catholic school prepared students lycée condorcet. governess called miss kitty came across channel, instilled in him love of - , competence in - english language. proctor caught him reading book rimbaud or mallarmé, , reprimanded him, let s have no disorder in studies! . cartier-bresson said, used informal tu , meant thrashing. went on, re going read in office. well, wasn t offer had repeat.

painting

after trying learn music, cartier-bresson introduced oil painting uncle louis, gifted painter. painting lessons cut short when uncle louis killed in world war i.

in 1927 cartier-bresson entered private art school , lhote academy, parisian studio of cubist painter , sculptor andré lhote. lhote s ambition integrate cubists approach reality classical artistic forms; wanted link french classical tradition of nicolas poussin , jacques-louis david modernism. cartier-bresson studied painting society portraitist jacques Émile blanche. during period, read dostoevsky, schopenhauer, rimbaud, nietzsche, mallarmé, freud, proust, joyce, hegel, engels , marx. lhote took pupils louvre study classical artists , paris galleries study contemporary art. cartier-bresson s interest in modern art combined admiration works of renaissance masters: jan van eyck, paolo uccello, masaccio, piero della francesca. cartier-bresson regarded lhote teacher of photography without camera.

surrealists photography influence

although cartier-bresson became frustrated lhote s rule-laden approach art, rigorous theoretical training later helped him identify , resolve problems of artistic form , composition in photography. in 1920s, schools of photographic realism popping throughout europe each had different view on direction photography should take. surrealist movement, founded in 1924, catalyst paradigm shift. cartier-bresson began socializing surrealists @ café cyrano, in place blanche. met number of movement s leading protagonists, , drawn surrealist movement s technique of using subconscious , immediate influence work. historian peter galassi explains:

the surrealists approached photography in same way aragon , breton...approached street: voracious appetite usual , unusual...the surrealists recognized in plain photographic fact essential quality had been excluded prior theories of photographic realism. saw ordinary photographs, when uprooted practical functions, contain wealth of unintended, unpredictable meanings.

cartier-bresson matured artistically in stormy cultural , political atmosphere. but, although knew concepts, couldn t express them; dissatisfied experiments, destroyed of paintings.

cambridge , army

from 1928 1929, cartier-bresson studied art, literature, , english @ university of cambridge, became bilingual. in 1930, during conscription in french army @ le bourget near paris, remembered, , had quite hard time of it, too, because toting joyce under arm , lebel rifle on shoulder.

receives first camera

in 1929, cartier-bresson s air squadron commandant placed him under house arrest hunting without license. cartier-bresson met american expatriate harry crosby @ le bourget, persuaded commandant release cartier-bresson custody few days. 2 men both had interest in photography, , harry presented henri first camera. spent time taking , printing pictures @ crosby s home, le moulin du soleil (the sun mill), near paris in ermenonville, france. crosby later said cartier-bresson looked fledgling, shy , frail, , mild whey. embracing open sexuality offered crosby , wife caresse, cartier-bresson fell intense sexual relationship lasted until 1931.

escape africa

two years after harry crosby died suicide, cartier-bresson s affair caresse crosby ended in 1931, leaving him broken-hearted. during conscription read conrad s heart of darkness. gave him idea of escaping , finding adventure on côte d ivoire in french colonial africa. survived shooting game , selling local villagers. hunting, learned methods later used in photography. on côte d ivoire, contracted blackwater fever, killed him. while still feverish, sent instructions grandfather own funeral, asking buried in normandy, @ edge of eawy forest while debussy s string quartet played. although cartier-bresson took portable camera (smaller brownie box) côte d ivoire, 7 photographs survived tropics.

photography

cartier-bresson s first leica

returning france, cartier-bresson recuperated in marseille in late 1931 , deepened relationship surrealists. became inspired 1930 photograph hungarian photojournalist martin munkacsi showing 3 naked young african boys, caught in near-silhouette, running surf of lake tanganyika. titled 3 boys @ lake tanganyika, captured freedom, grace , spontaneity of movement , joy @ being alive. photograph inspired him stop painting , take photography seriously. explained, understood photograph fix eternity in instant.

he acquired leica camera 50 mm lens in marseilles accompany him many years. anonymity small camera gave him in crowd or during intimate moment essential in overcoming formal , unnatural behavior of aware of being photographed. enhanced anonymity painting shiny parts of leica black paint. leica opened new possibilities in photography — ability capture world in actual state of movement , transformation. restless, photographed in berlin, brussels, warsaw, prague, budapest , madrid. photographs first exhibited @ julien levy gallery in new york in 1932, , subsequently @ ateneo club in madrid. in 1934 in mexico, shared exhibition manuel Álvarez bravo. in beginning, did not photograph in native france. years before photographed there extensively.

in 1934, cartier-bresson met young polish intellectual, photographer named david szymin called chim because name difficult pronounce. szymin later changed name david seymour. 2 had in common culturally. through chim, cartier-bresson met hungarian photographer named endré friedmann, later changed name robert capa.