Henri Cartier-Bresson was born August 22,1908 in Chanteloup-en-Brie, Seine-et-Marne, France. Died August 3, 2004.
He was the eldest of five children. His fathers family were wealthy textile manufacturers. Whose thread was a stable of french sewing kits. His mothers family were cotton merchants and landowners from Normandy.
The Cartier-Bresson family lived in the Bourgeois neighborhood in Paris and were able to give him financial support so allowing him to develop his interest in photography in a more independent way than many of his contemporaries.
1927-1928 He studied in Paris with the cubist artist and critic Andre Lhote. Whom he later claimed implanted him with a life interest in painting.
As a child Henri Cartier-Bresson owned a Box brownie camera. But his first entered into serious photography in 1931 after seen the work of Man Ray and Eugene Ataget. Using a small allowance, he traveled to Africa living in the Bush taking pictures of his experiences with a miniature camera. While in Africa he contracted Black water fever. Which meant he had to return to Paris.
In 1933 he bought his first 35 mm Leica camera. This type of camera was particularly relevant to him as it lent itself to both spontaneity and anonymity as well so much did Cartier-Bresson wish to remain silent an unseen that he would cover the chrome parts of his camera with tape so it would be less visible and would often hide his camera under a handkerchief.
In 1935 Him spend some time it the USA, Where he took his first photographs of New York and first experiments in film, with
Paul Strand.
1936 saw his him enter into film for the first time as second Assistant director to Jean Renoir on the Film
Une Partie de Campagne
In 1937 Cartier-Bresson Produced a documentary film, on medical aid in the spanish civil war.
This was also the year of his first reportage photographs for news papers and magazines the coronation of Kin George VI for the French weekly Regards strangely for the time he focused on the new monarchs adoring subjects lining the streets of london and took No photos of the New king. The photo credit simply read "Cartier" as he did not wish to use his family name.
Trafalgar Square,
Coronation of King George VI,
London, 1937,
Henri Cartier-Bresson.
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Coronation of King George VI, London,
1937 Henri CARTIER-BRESSON
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The Coronation Parade of George VI,
Trafalgar Square, London, 1937
He also worked as assistant director to Jean Renoir from 1936 - 1939 on two production, Une Partie de campagne ( A Day in the Country) and La Regle du jeu (The Rules of the Game).
"Dessau, Germany, April 1945.
