Exhibition note.(Art)(Henri Cartier-Bresson's exhibition)

"Henri Cartier-Bresson's Scrapbook: Photographs, 1932-1946" International Center of Photography. January 19, 2007-April 29, 2007

In June of 1940, Henri Cartier-Bresson was taken prisoner by the Germans and sent to Stalag V-A, number 845. Believing that he had died in captivity, the Museum of Modern Art in New York began work on a memorial exhibition. When Cartier-Bresson, who escaped from the camp on his third try in 1943, learned of the museum's plans, he was pleased to lend a hand. The result of his efforts was "Scrapbook: Photographs, 19321946": a display of 346 prints, 331 of them original scrapbook images chosen, printed, and assembled by Cartier-Bresson himself.

Cartier-Bresson, who lived nearly a century from 1908 to 2004, segued from surrealist painter to "documentary" photographer, yet never lost his love for the fundamentals of painting, drawing, and composition. By the last decades of his life he had put down his camera (except for portraiture of fellow artists and friends) and returned to his first love. "Drawing is an elaboration on reality, whereas photography, for me, is a supreme moment captured with a single shot" He believed that "inside movement there is one moment at which the elements in motion are in balance. Photography must seize upon this moment and hold immobile the equilibrium of it" This came to be known as the "decisive moment" the title of his 1952, publication and still a term of praise in photography circles today.

In 1947 Cartier-Bresson and four other freelance photographers founded the cooperative enterprise Magnum Photos. The agency, which continues to be the most prestigious photo agency in the world, distributed the photographers' "picture-stories" to magazines across the globe. In a November 1977 interview, Cartier-Bresson said he was only interested in the documentary aspect of photography as a poetic expression. Yet the concept of reportage meant something very specific to ...