A Warm Kiss: Cartier-Bresson Speaks in “The Decisive Moment”

“The camera is a weapon. The camera can be a machine gun. It can be a psychoanalytical couch. It can be a warm kiss,” opines Henri Cartier-Bresson in The Decisive Moment: Photographs and Words by Henri Cartier-Bresson, the 1973 film production recently re-released by Microcinema to coincide with Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Speaking in fluent English, Cartier-Bresson describes in vivid, impressionistic phrases the nature of his art as 69 of his most memorable images appear on the screen. The effect is, indeed, like a machine gun in its rapid fire, like a psychoanalytical couch in its insight into the human condition, and, perhaps most importantly, like a warm kiss in its intimacy and pure sensual joy. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "A Warm Kiss."

[Many thanks to Microcinema for providing me with a review copy of The Decisive Moment: Photographs and Words by Henri Cartier-Bresson.]

Life Story: Henri Cartier-Bresson at the MoMA

It’s amazing to think that the work of a groundbreaking photographer such as Henri Cartier-Bresson could once be found on the coffee tables of middle class homes accross America, and the world. Image-laden popular magazines such as Life made Cartier-Bresson as ubiquitous as a daily newspaper. Ever in search of “the decisive moment,” the title of his first major book, Cartier-Bresson strung together decisive moments in human lifetimes around the globe to picture for us the story of life on earth, with all its delicate beauty and brute cruelty. Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century at the Museum of Modern Art, New York gathers together the first U.S. retrospective in three decades of the renowned photographer. Looking at these images feels like looking at an old family album gathering dust in the attic, but these old stories never get old. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Life Story."

[Image : Henri Cartier-Bresson (French, 1908-2004). Hyères, France. 1932. Gelatin silver print, 7 11/16 x 11 7/16" (19.6 x 29.1 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase. © Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos, courtesy Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson.]



[Many thanks to the Museum of Modern Art, New York, for providing me with the image above and a review copy of the catalogue to Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century, which runs through June 28, 2010.]