Henri Cartier-Bresson photographs at National Media Museum

07/01/08

"To take a photograph is to align the head, the eye and the heart. It is a way of life" Henri Cartier-Bresson

French-born Henri Cartier-Bresson’s (1908-2004) approach to his work and photography has been enormously influential on generations of photographers, yet much remains unknown about his early work.

"We are delighted to be collaborating with the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson to bring Scrapbook to the UK for the first time,” said Curator of Photographs at the NMeM, Greg Hobson. “This important exhibition is a fascinating insight into Cartier-Bresson's working methods at a pivotal point in his career."

In his early years in the 1930's, Bresson's memorable photographs featured in prominent European magazines and newspapers and he had his first exhibition in a small private gallery in New York in 1933. In 1940 during the Second World War the Germans captured Bresson and imprisoned him. Following rumours of his demise, the Museum of Modern Art in New York began planning a posthumous exhibition.

However, Bresson made valiant attempts to escape and, on his third attempt, successfully reached France in 1943. Towards the end of the war Beaumont Newhall discovered that Bresson was still alive and they began to plan a new show together. Bresson started to print his work, subsequently arranging the photographs in sequences in a scrapbook bought on his arrival in New York in 1946. This book would form the basis of the seminal 1947 MOMA exhibition and publication that would launch Bresson as a world-renowned photographer. During his time in New York in 1947, Bresson also founded Magnum Photos, a cooperative agency that has since become a worldwide force in documentary photography.

The Scrapbook was rediscovered by Bresson in the 1990s, who carefully removed most of the prints that he had painstakingly printed in 1945-46. Containing many of Bresson's best-known and engaging images, Bresson's Scrapbook is an important document, recalling a major turning point in the photographer's career. The exhibition will also feature a selection of larger prints which were included in the seminal 1947 MOMA show.

Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson set up to preserve the work and memory of the photographer, have brought together the photographs from the album, with the original album covers, some extant album pages and related contextual material, to create a rare exhibition of vintage works printed by Bresson.

The exhibition will run from Friday 7 March - Saturday 1 June 2008 and entry is free. For more information please visit the National Media Museum website.

http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/

The SWPP 2008 Convention was an outstanding success,
we have 174 days to get ready for the 2009 convention - which starts on January 14, 2009

Photo Quote: There are an awful lot of people in the world and it's going to be terribly hard to photograph all of them... It was my teacher Lisette Model who finally made it clear to me that the more specific you are, the more general it will be. Diane Arbus