Henri Cartier-Bresson: Interviews and Conversations

by Henri Cartier-Bresson (Primary Contributor), Clément Chéroux (Foreword), Julie Jones (Foreword)

Presented for the first time in English, this volume brings together twelve notable interviews and conversations with Henri Cartier-Bresson carried out between 1951 and 1998. While many of us are acquainted with his images, there are so few texts available by Cartier-Bresson on his photographic process. These verbal, primary accounts capture the spirit of the master photographer and serve as a lasting document of his life and work, which has inspired generations of photographers and artists.

Here, Cartier-Bresson speaks passionately, with metaphors and similes, about the world and photography. A man of principles shaped by the evolving eras of the twentieth century, his major influences included Surrealism, European politics of the 1930s and ’40s, the Second World War, and his experiences with Magnum as cofounder and reporter. This book illuminates his thoughts, personality, and reflections on a seminal career.

In his own "[Photography] is a way of questioning the world and questioning yourself at the same time. . . . It entails a discipline. For me, freedom is a basic frame of reference, and inside that frame are all the possible variations. Everything, everything, everything. But it is within a frame. The important thing is the sense of limit. And visually, it is the sense of form. Form is important. The structure of things. The space."

Genres: Photography, Nonfiction, Art

128 pages, Paperback

Published June 30, 2017

About the author

Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French photographer considered to be the father of modern photojournalism, an early adopter of 35 mm format, and the master of candid photography. He helped develop the "street photography" or "real life reportage" style that has influenced generations of photographers that followed.

Reviews

[Philippe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Henri Cartier-Bresson (HCB) was, in writing, never very articulate about his approach to photography. It was in conversation with friends, fellow photographers and journalists that he spoke more lively and expansively about life and art. The interviews included in this compact, carefully edited volume span a significant slice of HCB’s career, from 1951 to 1998. They were published in a wide range of periodicals and are hard to retrieve today. The editors did a commendable job in selecting, occasionally translating and annotating this set of 10 interviews.

My personal enthusiasm for Cartier-Bresson's photography cooled after a visit to the grand, posthumously retrospective exhibition at the Bibliotheque de France in 2003. I was disappointed to see how he had clung to the same ‘formula’ during his whole career, from the 1930s onwards. Always that same fixation on geometry, the elegant play of lines and volumes, always black & white. His was an ethos and aesthetic of the ‘decisive moment’, so intimately linked to his use of the Leica rangefinder camera.

Cartier-Bresson originally wanted to become a painter but during an early, adventurous part of his life drifted towards photography. But painting and drawing remained his reference points. And so, in contrast, he developed a conception of photography as ‘sketching’. Both painter and photographer face the same rules of composition and have to solve similar visual problems, but while the former operates through meditation and synthesis, the latter proceeds by instinct and intuition, seizing on the significant detail, implacably situated in time and space.

In trying to make sense of Cartier-Bresson’s artistic position I was reminded of Françoise Choay’s book The Rule and the Model in which she contrasts two conceptions of architecture: a modern, rule-based approach focused on spatial problem solving and an older conception that sees architecture as the embodiment of sense, based on models from antiquity and nature. If we transpose this idea to photography it seems to me that HCB firmly adheres to the latter. His obsession with geometry betrays an unquestionable loyalty to immutable laws of form that have supported human civilization for ages.

Questions of aesthetics aside, Cartier-Bresson is often a good raconteur. There’s a plethora of captivating similes and anecdotes. Here is just one example : “Once in Delhi I was showing Gandhi my book of photographs. He looks at them carefully, page after page, without saying a word. All of a sudden, he comes across the photo of Claudel looking at a hearse in front of the Brangues church. He stops and asks me what it shows. He listens to me and repeats several times: “Death, death, death, …,” then keeps turning the pages. Less than an hour after I left Gandhi, he was murdered.” (the Magnum website tells us that Gandhi was murdered the day after Cartier-Bresson made his portrait.)

All in all this collection of conversations rekindled my appreciation for HCB the man and the artist. Recommended to anyone interested in 20th century history of photography.

[Brian Page · Rating 3 out of 5]

Notorious for his “I have nothing to say” (p. 71), here are 145 pages in HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON: INTERVIEWS AND CONVERSATIONS 1951 – 1998, in which HCB manages to say quite a bit. Far be it from me to attempt a review. I will, instead, convey a few quotations from this master “photojournalist” and master of fuzzy thinking.

“To my mind, photography has the power to evoke, and must not simply document.” (p. 44)

“The only objectivity – and these are responsibilities I have always taken on – is to be honest toward yourself and your subject.” (p. 65)

“When I see the amount of gear that some photographers have and then see their results, there is a bit of a discrepancy.” (p. 80)

Interestingly, in a number of interviews, HCB distances himself from the phrase “decisive moment.” He describes how Dick Simon (of Simon & Schuster) plucked the term from a quotation that HCB referenced. Regardless of attribution, the phrase fits, especially considering the admiration HCB had for Surrealist philosophy and anarchism.

[Yorgo · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a photographer, it was amazing to discover Henri's personality, mindset, and thinking, through these conversations and interviews. I loved his photographs but the man behind them is as amazing.

There are so many inspirational quotes one could get from this book!
Definitely recommended for any photographer!

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Every human being is a potential artist, that is, a sensitive human being.”

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing. The best and most interesting book I have read so far about Henri Cartier - Bresson which gives much deeper insight into his mind and soul than all the other books where historians and curators write about him. I gained a different look on him than I had before as a genius of photography, a father of photography. I think some statements about Bresson in art world are overstated and not based on truth or facts approven by himself.
Several interviews highlighted his personal thoughts on the main topics - politics, history, belief, opinion on art and photography, Magnum agency work, his life and feelings... .
Now it seems I know him as a person not only as a genius of photography.

[Alan Tsuei · Rating 4 out of 5]

但凡人出名後就會有一堆作者替其作傳寫記，但無論多麼妙筆生花都遠遠比不上本人的親口講述…
布列松的訪談集，尤其是他對自然光與自然人的推崇，不用閃光燈，不以長年永在的風景或建築物為主題，只在意人間一剎那一瞬間的情感流露，這也是今日絕大多數的街頭攝影師所追求的，不是那種刻意為之的沙龍照或擺拍，而是不修飾、不做作的微妙人間，太過拘泥規範而不順從直覺是無法拍出好照片的，不停追求下一張照片而不被前面的作品所綁住是很重要的，正因為要不斷觀察發現周遭的妙處，所以要四定決心當個苦行僧，不知疲憊不怕辛苦的穿街走巷，但千萬別把自己當成藝術家或大師在拍照，自然也就不會被生活壓力之下的商業作品給煩心了，只不過記得再落魄也別去拍八卦照片就是了，最後，畫畫攝影或玩文字都還是要多唸點書有文化有深度，不然是無法練就出屬於自己的獨道眼光…
雖然不能理解布列松對色彩屬於繪畫不屬於攝影的看法，但看完此書很難不欣賞他那自由隨性不求名利的人生哲學…

[Marysia]

“There is no school for sensitivity. It does not exist. It is unthinkable. You need a certain intellectual background. I won’t talk about culture... but a desire to enrich your mind, and to live”
- H. C. B. 🤍

[Lee Klein · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of photographs Henri Cartier-Bresson took in New Jersey in 1975 appeared in The New Yorker earlier this year, including a shot of my father at his office, age 33. A few issues later, the magazine also printed my related letter of amazement/gratitude. I realized I knew very little about the photographer beyond his famous name and a few images, so I watched some YouTube (I'd recommend this video) and acquired this collection of always engaging if repetitive interviews. Interesting in terms of his emphasis on intuition, early Surrealist influence, and his insistence on capturing the moment when it appears, without intellectualizing about its importance after the photograph is taken. Wish I had dog-eared pages with representative quotations applicable to the practice of any art form. Maybe I'll add some later.

[Ryan Brady · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cartier-Bresson is, of course, a legend of photography who’s work both through the lens and as a founder of Magnum has shaped the practice for decades. However, this little book is agonizingly repetitive and offers very little new information or insight with each successive interview. That’s not HCB’s fault, because they’re obviously separate interviews that took place over his life, but in book form it was a rather boring slog through the same commentary over and over again. If you want to understand his work and thinking, read maybe a couple of these interviews at the most and go back and look at his work. I think even the man himself would suggest that approach. The work is the important part. For a book, this was boring and not terribly insightful. Would not recommend to be read in full.

[Saksham Gumber · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favourite outtake was when Bresson talked about coincidences, and how he showed Gandhi his book, where the only photo that spoke to Gandhi was about death, an hour after which he was assassinated. Bresson lived an interesting life—and to him too that’s what mattered, life. The book is more captivating when focusing on those aspects, and a bit dull and repetitive when getting technical; perhaps because Bresson himself was hesitant and bored to talk about photography. Still, made me think technically too.

[Yanitsa Genova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Да четеш Бресон как говори за фотография е равностойно на това да четеш живота в най-чистата му форма.

But photography is a way to educate yourself?
It's a way of questioning the world and questioning yourself at the same time.

[Eric Tsui · Rating 4 out of 5]

bit repetitive of course since it's a compilation of interviews, but still very much worth reading. inspiring stuff from a man who has a name larger than what he truly is.

[Sudeep Lahiri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bit repetitive. But that’s the fault of the interviewer and the editor, the interviewee remained remarkably consistent throughout.

[Johnny · Rating 4 out of 5]

my dude kind of hated photography which is cool as hell. he said some real rad shit and some kind of dumb shit too. a real human being. v into it.

HARD PLEASURE

[Tony P · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic insight into one of the most influential photographers of all time.

[麗瑩 · Rating 5 out of 5]

He’s so good. It’s good that he didn’t stick with photography. He’s not that skillful as a generator. I’m glad he found painting.