Details

Name

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Brief Biography

1908 - 2004, French

Occupation

Photographer

Description

Henri first took up photography in 1931 and became assistant director to the French film-maker Jean Renoir in 1936. He was a founder of the Magnum group which produced some of the strongest images in photo-reportage in post-war Europe. Although he had been a prisoner of war between 1940-3, his own work tended to avoid graphic representations of conflict and focused instead on the way in which such large-scale events had an impact on people's everyday lives.

Famed for his ability to capture precise moments in people’s daily lives, Henri Cartier-Bresson is one of the most significant photographers of the twentieth century and one of the first proponents of the genre, Street Photography. Founder of the famous Magnum Group, Cartier-Bresson’s career saw him photograph major 20th Century events including the Spanish Civil War, The 1944 liberation of Paris and the assassination of Gandhi, while taking portraits of Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Albert Camus.