Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Mind's Eye
Supremely accomplished and influential French photographer Cartier-Bresson guided the evolution of the photographic medium while creating an enormous body of work. His photographs of people, famous and obscure, always contain a strong psychological component deriving from formally perfect compositions and a temporal ambivalence that characterizes only the most powerful static images. This slight book contains short essays by Cartier-Bresson along with some less interesting aesthetic epigrams and tributes to fellow artists. This is the first published collection of his writings, though large chunks are taken from books he published in the 1950s and 1960s. And while there's not a great deal of his writings to be collected, what's here is pithy and laconic without being sententious. His artistic philosophy is well captured by his landmark 1952 essay "The Decisive Moment," contained here, probably the most poetically instructive evocation of the field photographer's art yet written. This is a useful and important title from one of the defining sets of eyes in the cumulative visual record of the 20th century. Recommended for academic and large public libraries.DDouglas F. Smith, Oakland P.L., CACopyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.