Henri Cartier‐Bresson Reinterprets his Career

Abstract

Between 1952 and 1974, Henri Cartier‐Bresson significantly revised his understanding of himself as a photojournalist. This article analyses that change through close readings of his book, The Decisive Moment (1952), an interview in Le Monde (1974), and other published statements and unpublished letters by Cartier‐Bresson. It draws on interviews and correspondence with his widow Martine Franck, with his friend and representative Helen Wright, and with associates at Magnum Photos. It argues that what appears from a superficial reading of the interview to be a rejection of photography and photojournalism was in fact Cartier‐Bresson's first public expression of a long‐simmering opposition to the consumer society – which he as an ecologist strongly opposed – and to fashion and advertising photography, which he believed promoted unnecessary consumption. It concludes that Cartier‐Bresson reinterpreted his past by seeing himself as a surrealist to the denial of having done photojournalism. The article is predicated on the belief that understanding the change in Cartier‐Bresson's own conception of his work is essential to a full understanding of it.