Who are you looking for?

Install Famoose

Keep Famoose on your home screen or desktop for easy access.

Open this site in Chrome or Edge and look for Install app in the browser menu or address bar. If no install option appears, you can bookmark Famoose instead.

Famoose.co
Appearance
Text size
Page width
Colour
Discover›Art
Contents
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Artist

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Famoose for

The decisive moment in candid photography

The Decisive Moment

Born
22 August 1908
Birthplace
Chanteloup-en-Brie, France
Died
3 August 2004

More people

Leonardo da VinciPainting the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper.Frida KahloPainting self-portraits about identity, pain and Mexican life.Vincent van GoghPainting The Starry Night and Sunflowers.

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French photographer and artist whose pictures joined spontaneous observation with careful composition. He was a founding member of Magnum Photos.

Early life

Painting training

Studied painting before photography, including at André Lhote’s academy in Paris.

Career

  1. 1947

    Magnum Photos

    Co-founded the photographers’ agency.

  2. 1970s

    Return to drawing

    Largely withdrew from photographic assignments to concentrate on art.

Selected work

The Decisive Moment

A book associated with his approach to capturing fleeting arrangements of people and events.

Beyond work

Art beyond the camera

Drawing and painting remained lifelong interests.

Sources & photo creditBiography and career ↗Biographical references ↗Additional biographical or achievement source ↗

Original photograph. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.

Photo: Ihei Kimura. Public domain · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.