Man of the Moment
The Elusive Find May 20th, 2010
Henri Cartier-Bresson, who died in 2004 at the age of 96, is one of the most influential and beloved figures in the history of photography. Far ahead of his colleagues, he rejected the heavy, studio-based camera and took his Nikon (with the shiny lens covered in black tape so he would be less noticeable) to the streets. His uncanny ability to capture life on the run, to expose “the definining moment” (the title of his first book) is on view in the Museum of Modern Art’s spectacular show, “Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century” (through June 28). Among the roughly three hundred photographs are also his striking portraits of such exalted contemporaries as Matisse, Colette, and Picasso. But celebrity was not Cartier-Bresson’s thing. Assigned to cover of the coronation of George VI, he shot the king’s subjects filling the streets rather than the king himself. The world’s first “photojournalist,” he was everywhere: Shanghai, India (for Gandhi’s funeral), Pakistan, Algeria, and, of course, France. He’s now also at Richter Gallery in Nashville, where Samantha Richter is offering one of our favorites, “Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare, Paris.” It’s a classic example of what Cartier-Bresson did best: capturing “eternity in an instant.”
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Elusive Find: Oysterman
