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The Baukunst Galerie, Cologne, dedicates the forthcoming exhibition to Henri Cartier-Bresson. The famous French photographer died on the 3rd of August in Cereste near Marseilles. The opening takes place on the 15th of September from 6 until 9 p.m. with an introduction by Christiane Stahl, Director of the Alfred-Ehrhardt-Foundation, Cologne. This one man show follows a special exhibition at the Museum Ludwig which has been organized to honor the artist and as reaction to his death. The actual retrospective of his photographic oeuvre started 2003 in Paris, was shown in Barcelona, is now in Berlin, and will travel to Rome, Edinburgh and New York. 1998/99 the Baukunst Galerie showed for the first time Henri Cartier Bresson’s photos and drawings.
Henri Cartier Bresson is one of the most famous photographers of the 20th century. He was born at the 22nd August 1908 in Chanteloup as a son of an industrialist. 1927 to 1929 he studied painting in Paris. In the 30s he began to photograph: He discovered the German camera Leica, which he could take with him to use it in the all-decisive moments. Voyages of photographic discovery had taken him almost around the whole world.
With his right feeling for the special moment he became well-known very quickly. In 1933 his first exhibitions took place in Madrid and in New York. During World War II, Henri Cartier-Bresson was a prisoner of war, 1943 he managed to escape. During his captivity he had not taken any photos. Back in Paris he has become a member of the “Résistance“. 1945 he directed his distressing film ”The Return“ about the return of French prisoners of war and refugees. In 1947 he founded the agency “Magnum“ together with Robert Capa, David Seymour and George Rodger. For the next two decades he traveled through the world as a photo-journalist on the behalf of the agency and always he seemed to be in the right place at the right moment. Looking back these have often been historical moments in terms of political changes. But, he never focussed on the actual event, he rather caught the atmosphere of the moment by keeping the eye on the emotions as reflected in a facial expression for example. Famous, too, are his portraits of prominent contemporaries as Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre and Alberto Giacometti.
In the middle of the 70s Henri Cartier-Bresson stopped taking pictures and began again to draw. Baukunst Galerie shows about 40 photos from the 30s until the 70s, among them are the famous photos of the series “En France“, “Les Européens“ and “L’Amerique“ and of his award-winning documentaries “The Coronation of King George VI“ and “The Last Days of Kuomintang“. Furthermore, pictures which had been taken in Mexico, China, Russia and in Georgia.
Henri Cartier-Bresson has found his subjects in the every day life, in cities as well as in isolated landscapes. He has always focussed on the specific atmosphere of the moment.
He said about his work: “There is nothing in the world which has not a decisive moment“. His essay “L’instant décisif“ became the basis for the work of a whole generation of photo-journalists. He has used his camera like a painter his sketch-book. He went through his life always ready to get inspired by something. In his opinion taking a photograph was a spontaneous reaction, which catches a moment forever. He has used his camera instinctively in the right moment and in the right place. He has taken the picture of a man jumping over a puddle in front of Gare Saint-Lazare or a Turkish men on a step in black clothes. These examples illustrate that his photos have been composed in the sense of a classical painterly composition. In these photos one has to recognize that as a photographer he always remained a painter. Cartier-Bresson also has had a feeling for color, even though he only made photos in black and white without flashlight. Once he said: “I can find emotions only in black and white“.
Henri Cartier-Bresson was called “the eye of the 20th Century“. This does not mean that his work was just about documentation. He has tried to catch a glimpse of the human sole, of thoughts and dreams. One can see his love to the people, which does not depend on color, social status or culture. He said that whenever he did something there was always a relation between eye and heart: While taking a picture one eye was looking at the subject and the other one was looking inside.
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