An Inner Silence: The Portraits of Henri Cartier-Bresson
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Photography & Video
An Inner Silence: The Portraits of Henri Cartier-Bresson Details
From Publishers Weekly Published to coincide with the first exhibition at the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris, this handsome collection spanning 70 years of image-making gathers 97 portraits by one of the defining photographers of the 20th century. Stripping away artifice from his subject, Cartier-Bresson could capture a personality with a click of his legendary Leica. The book collects portraits of world leaders, artists, celebrities and ordinary citizens, including many famous images—e.g., Sartre and Pouillon standing on Pont Des Arts—and a few iconic ones, like a young Truman Capote on a New Orleans bench engulfed by large leaves. Several pictures, including arresting images of Carson McCullers, Joan Miró, Susan Sontag and Francis Bacon, are previously unpublished. Some of the images confirm the persona of the subject: Carl Jung puffing on his pipe and William Faulkner rolling up his shirt sleeves as dogs nip at his heels. Others shed light on a familiar figure: Martin Luther King lost in thought at his cluttered desk, pen in one hand and his forehead resting in the other. These masterful photos blend the spontaneity of a great snapshot with the highly organized composition of a classical painting. 97 tritone reproductions. (May) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Read more About the Author Agnès Sire is the Director of the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson. Jean-Luc Nancy is a French philosopher whose books include Being Singular Plural. Read more
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Reviews
Published to coincide with the opening in 2003 of the Foundation Henri Cartier-Bresson, which was created to house permanently the artist's collected works, AN INNER SILENCE is a joy to behold. There are 95 photographs reproduced here along with a self-portrait sketch of Cartier-Bresson and a quotation by him. Both curator Agnes Sire and philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy have written insightful, informative essays to accompany the photographs. Sire reminds us that the artist disliked being photographed-- ("Perhaps he felt the falseness of the situation")-- and tht he liked to work quickly, in the photographer's own words, to "'bite like a mosquito,'" in order to capture the inner silence of the subject.But now to the photographs. There are shots here seen around the world of famous people: Marilyn Monroe, Martin Luther King, Jean Genet, Christian Dior (one of my favorites), Francis Bacon, Roland Barthes (fantastic photograph), a very young and pensive Carson McCullers. William Faulkner (another favorite), Henri Matisse, a very youthful and handsome John Huston, Truman Capote, Albert Camus et al.What is so amazing, however, about these photographs is that the shots of strangers are just as intriguing and engage the viewer as much as the images of the rich and/or famous or both. For example, "Mexico" (p. 49), "Jewish ghetto, Warsaw" (p. 47), "Egypt" (p. 39), "Paris" (p. 81), "Zurich" (p. 105), and "Los Angeles" (p. 107). I for one would like to know more about this young couple.These photographs, like all great art, invite us to view them again and again. Shot in gorgeous available natural light, they remind us of just how harsh and often pedestrian flash photography can be.Sire closes her essay by saying that "an exhibition of these encounters would not only be one more tribute to his talent [Cartier-Bresson], as a photographer, but more importantly, would allow many aspects of his being to shine, like so many firefires in a field, because the gaze of these portraits is his gaze, linked by the thread of the other." Beautifully spoken.
