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Review
`Magnificent ... it pulses with the vitality of a man who began travelling, camera in hand, aged 22 and didn't stop for nearly half a century' --The Daily Telegraph
`Shows Cartier-Bresson as one of the most dogged and respected witnesses to the last century, seemingly always in the right place at the right time' --Seven Magazine, The Sunday Telegraph
'He [Cartier-Bresson] had an extraordinary ability to capture in one frame a whole raft of imagery and meaning, to portray the essence of the world in one picture'
--Jinx Rodger, The Times
`A perfect summary of the time and the place, testament to his talent and the diversity of the world' --Traveller
`Exemplifies a modesty of spirit and an eye for detail ... it's not to be missed'
--Professional Photographer
'Brings a fresh, sympathetic understanding to the panoramic scope of the great photographer's work... packed with both famous images and those never seen before' --The Financial Times
'Perhaps the most exhaustive collection of Cartier-Bresson's work we've seen outside of his own estate, and for £55 this is incredible value' --Amateur Photographer
'A magnificent new appreciation of the French father of photojournalism'
--Metro
'We want something more than we are already familiar with. And this book [...] in being both authoritative and beautiful, fulfils that desire. ...exceptional' --Black and White Photography
'... a valuable collector's item. ...The scope of the book is so extensive that the reader will be inspired on multiple levels' --Silvershotz: The International Journal of Fine Art Photography
'A fabulous piece of scholarship, bringing together many decades of photo journalism from one of the recognised masters.'
--Professional Image Maker
'[Galassi's essay is] a dynamic, informative and sympathetic account of this highly prolific, successful and celebrated French photographer'
--The Art Newspaper
`Shows Cartier-Bresson as one of the most dogged and respected witnesses to the last century, seemingly always in the right place at the right time' --Seven Magazine, The Sunday Telegraph
'He [Cartier-Bresson] had an extraordinary ability to capture in one frame a whole raft of imagery and meaning, to portray the essence of the world in one picture'
--Jinx Rodger, The Times
`A perfect summary of the time and the place, testament to his talent and the diversity of the world' --Traveller
`Exemplifies a modesty of spirit and an eye for detail ... it's not to be missed'
--Professional Photographer
'Brings a fresh, sympathetic understanding to the panoramic scope of the great photographer's work... packed with both famous images and those never seen before' --The Financial Times
'Perhaps the most exhaustive collection of Cartier-Bresson's work we've seen outside of his own estate, and for £55 this is incredible value' --Amateur Photographer
'A magnificent new appreciation of the French father of photojournalism'
--Metro
'We want something more than we are already familiar with. And this book [...] in being both authoritative and beautiful, fulfils that desire. ...exceptional' --Black and White Photography
'... a valuable collector's item. ...The scope of the book is so extensive that the reader will be inspired on multiple levels' --Silvershotz: The International Journal of Fine Art Photography
'A fabulous piece of scholarship, bringing together many decades of photo journalism from one of the recognised masters.'
--Professional Image Maker
'[Galassi's essay is] a dynamic, informative and sympathetic account of this highly prolific, successful and celebrated French photographer'
--The Art Newspaper
Product Description
Henri Cartier-Bresson (19082004) is one of the most influential and beloved figures in the history of photography. Released to accompany an exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, 'Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century' is the first major publication to make full use of the extensive holdings of the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris including thousands of prints and a vast resource of documents relating to the photographers life and work. The heart of the book surveys Cartier-Bressons career through 300 photographs divided into twelve chapters.While many of his most famous pictures are included, a great number of images will be unfamiliar even to specialists. A wide-ranging essay by Peter Galassi, Chief Curator of Photography at the Museum, offers an entirely new understanding of Cartier-Bressons extraordinary career and its overlapping contexts of journalism and art. The extensive supporting material featuring detailed chronologies of the photographers professional travels and his picture stories as they appeared in magazines will revolutionize the study of Cartier-Bressons work.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This collection has probably the most generous inclusion of previously unpublished or little published work, but although I return to it frequently I remain unsure that it is necessarily the best. I think I prefer the Thames & Hudson collections. The print sizes in the T&H titles are usually larger and generally the printing is better.
The other slightly strange thing is that I realise how used I have become to seeing HC-B's pictures with the black key-lines (the negative edges) he insisted on as an indication that the image was uncropped and seen as he intended. THE MODERN CENTURY does away with the black edges and to me this makes the prints look a little naked on the page. Most will not be bothered by this.
There is remarkable work in this new collection, of course -- but possibly too much of it. The placing of multiple pictures on the page reduces rather than increases their impact, and introduces a tendency in the reader to skim in a way that I don't think you do when the publication has one picture per page. I'll give an example. On p.203 there is an extraordinary photograph -- but it isn't immediately evident just how extraordinary it is. It isn't terribly sharp and it isn't terribly well printed. It shows young women dancing as apart of the parade during the celebrations of the People's Republic of China's ninth anniversary. I had turned the page before I realised that every figure as far as the eye can see in the photograph ha both feet simultaneously off the ground. What in other hands would have been a rather workaday journalism assignment in HC-B's hands becomes a little miracle of timing (and editing).
But somehow, this present collection seems to require harder work than any other HC-B title I have to mine out the marvels. They are there. But I'm still not quite sure that the presentation and printing do them full justice.
The other slightly strange thing is that I realise how used I have become to seeing HC-B's pictures with the black key-lines (the negative edges) he insisted on as an indication that the image was uncropped and seen as he intended. THE MODERN CENTURY does away with the black edges and to me this makes the prints look a little naked on the page. Most will not be bothered by this.
There is remarkable work in this new collection, of course -- but possibly too much of it. The placing of multiple pictures on the page reduces rather than increases their impact, and introduces a tendency in the reader to skim in a way that I don't think you do when the publication has one picture per page. I'll give an example. On p.203 there is an extraordinary photograph -- but it isn't immediately evident just how extraordinary it is. It isn't terribly sharp and it isn't terribly well printed. It shows young women dancing as apart of the parade during the celebrations of the People's Republic of China's ninth anniversary. I had turned the page before I realised that every figure as far as the eye can see in the photograph ha both feet simultaneously off the ground. What in other hands would have been a rather workaday journalism assignment in HC-B's hands becomes a little miracle of timing (and editing).
But somehow, this present collection seems to require harder work than any other HC-B title I have to mine out the marvels. They are there. But I'm still not quite sure that the presentation and printing do them full justice.
5 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
very interesting and wel put togethe collection of cartierbresson work - well worth adding to my set of photo books
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
11 reviews
34 of 45 people found the following review helpful
A solid anthology --- and an inspiring one
18 April 2010
Format:Hardcover
Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004) was to photography what the Impressionists were to painting. Those breakthrough artists grasped that the latest innovation in technology--pre-mixed paints, packaged in tubes--allowed them to go outside their studios and chronicle the life they found there. In much the same way, Cartier-Bresson rejected the heavy studio-based camera, covered the shiny lens of a lightweight Nikon with black tape so his subjects would be less inclined to notice him, and took to the streets.
What he invented there was, essentially, photojournalism.
He shot and shot and shot some more, looking for "the decisive moment" that revealed its subject and maybe much more. When he found it, he turned his film over to the lab--he had no interest in printing, less in cropping.
The show includes his revealing portraits of Sartre, de Beauvoir, Camus, Picasso, Colette, Matisse, Pound and Giacometti. But the decisive moment did not necessarily mean photographing Personages and Celebrities. In 1937, he was assigned to shoot the coronation of King George VI. He took not a single shot of the king. His subjects? The king's subjects, who filled the streets to cheer their new monarch.
Cartier-Bresson's photographs of civilians are body blows. Look at the picture on the cover of Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century--a mother-and-son reunion at the end of World War II. No one shot post-war conflict like Cartier-Bresson. Kids playing games amidst rubble. The denunciation of a woman accused of collaborating with the Germans. Mourners during the Algerian conflict.
For 30 years, Cartier-Bresson was everywhere. In Shanghai, during a run on the banks. In India, to take some of the last pictures of Gandhi--and, from close-up, his funeral pyre.
What especially dazzles is the clarity of his images. Women on a hilltop in Pakistan in 1949 hold their hands in prayer, their feet echoing the line of the distant mountains. A bicyclist makes a turn at the bottom of a curving staircase. A man slips over a puddle, his image reflected in the water.
Simple stuff. An eight-year-old can grasp the ideas and be excited by them. And adults can have their visual palettes refreshed, the better to see, as Cartier-Bresson did, "eternity in an instant."
What he invented there was, essentially, photojournalism.
He shot and shot and shot some more, looking for "the decisive moment" that revealed its subject and maybe much more. When he found it, he turned his film over to the lab--he had no interest in printing, less in cropping.
The show includes his revealing portraits of Sartre, de Beauvoir, Camus, Picasso, Colette, Matisse, Pound and Giacometti. But the decisive moment did not necessarily mean photographing Personages and Celebrities. In 1937, he was assigned to shoot the coronation of King George VI. He took not a single shot of the king. His subjects? The king's subjects, who filled the streets to cheer their new monarch.
Cartier-Bresson's photographs of civilians are body blows. Look at the picture on the cover of Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century--a mother-and-son reunion at the end of World War II. No one shot post-war conflict like Cartier-Bresson. Kids playing games amidst rubble. The denunciation of a woman accused of collaborating with the Germans. Mourners during the Algerian conflict.
For 30 years, Cartier-Bresson was everywhere. In Shanghai, during a run on the banks. In India, to take some of the last pictures of Gandhi--and, from close-up, his funeral pyre.
What especially dazzles is the clarity of his images. Women on a hilltop in Pakistan in 1949 hold their hands in prayer, their feet echoing the line of the distant mountains. A bicyclist makes a turn at the bottom of a curving staircase. A man slips over a puddle, his image reflected in the water.
Simple stuff. An eight-year-old can grasp the ideas and be excited by them. And adults can have their visual palettes refreshed, the better to see, as Cartier-Bresson did, "eternity in an instant."
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Stunning Photography
27 Nov 2010
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I saw an exhibit of Cartier-Bresson's work a few months back at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, but instead of purchasing the book at the museum, decided to order it from amazon.com. I got a brand new copy (wrapped) and saved approximately $15 (of what it would have cost me at the museum shop!) The book arrived very quickly. It is absolutely beautiful. The reproduction of these stunning photographs by this world-renowned photographer is incredibly well-done and it is a wonderful book to own and to share with anyone who appreciates good photography. Or just appreciates the moments in a lifetime, because this is what Cartier-Bresson captures...little moments, big moments but mostly moments when his subjects were not even aware they were being photographed. There are photos from all over the world and spanning many decades, some celebrities, but lots of ordinary men, women and children as well. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in photography and art. You will be mesmerized by his work.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
A great place to start
18 Jun 2010
Format:Hardcover
Fist of all, see the exhibit at MOMA (NYC) if you can -- it closes June 28. This is a major retrospective arguably the most influential and formally perfect of all photographers, and this exhibit allows you to step through his life via the work.
Cartier-Bresson was a master this book provides a beautiful overview of both "greatest hits" and previously unpublished images. Many of the lesser-known images are revelations, such as the post-war dockside reunion pictured on the cover.
Print quality and binding are excellent, and the essay by Peter Galassi sets the life in the context of his painterly aspirations, Magnum colleagues, and working methods.
Highest recommendation!
Cartier-Bresson was a master this book provides a beautiful overview of both "greatest hits" and previously unpublished images. Many of the lesser-known images are revelations, such as the post-war dockside reunion pictured on the cover.
Print quality and binding are excellent, and the essay by Peter Galassi sets the life in the context of his painterly aspirations, Magnum colleagues, and working methods.
Highest recommendation!
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