Henri Cartier-Bresson

1908–2004

In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Rooms

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Biography

Henri Cartier-Bresson (French: [kaʁtje bʁɛsɔ̃]; August 22, 1908 – August 3, 2004) was a French humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, and an early user of 35 mm film. He pioneered the genre of street photography, and viewed photography as capturing a decisive moment.

Cartier-Bresson was one of the founding members of Magnum Photos in 1947. In the 1970s he took up drawing—he had studied painting in the 1920s.

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Artworks

Left Right

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Henri Cartier-Bresson Hyères, France

1932, printed later

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Henri Cartier-Bresson Interior with Marilyn Monroe

c.1960–9, printed later

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Henri Cartier-Bresson Hyde Park in the grey drizzle

1937, later print

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Henri Cartier-Bresson Queen Charlotte’s Ball, London

1959, later print

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Henri Cartier-Bresson Coronation of King George VI, 12 May 1937

1937, later print

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Henri Cartier-Bresson Waiting in Trafalgar Square for the coronation parade of King George VI

1937, later print

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Henri Cartier-Bresson Coronation of George VI, 12th May 1937

1937, later print

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Henri Cartier-Bresson The embankment in morning, looking east from the roof of Temple underground station. Workers going to offices

1951

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Features

Tate Etc

On the hoof and shooting from the hip: Another London

David Campany

Between 1930 and 1980 photographers from across the globe came to capture the essence of London. To coincide with an ...
Art Term

Magnum Photos

Magnum Photos is a New York based photographic co-operative founded in 1947 by four photographers, including Robert Capa and Henri ...
Tate Etc

'For want of a new territory to conquer, the fictional energies of art have penetrated into the factual and material basis of photography'

Max Kozloff

Street & Studio: An Urban History of Photography
Tate Etc

We are here: Photographing Britain

David Campany , Nigel Shafran , Homer Sykes , Martin Parr , Anna Pavord , Viktor KolÃ¡r , Kathryn Hughes , Brett Rogers and Tessa Codrington

To coincide with Tate Britain’s photographic survey of Britain’s social history, Tate Etc. asked a selection of writers, curators and ...
Essay

Cruel and tender

Carter Ratcliff

What is the place of documentary photography in art? This is the central question raised by Tate's first major ...