Henri Cartier Bresson’s Biography

In his first trip to Mexico, in 1934, Henri Cartier Bresson is a country that is a paradox, a land where the past and present coexist dimensions offering surreal scenes.

The photos on their second trip to Mexico, in 1963, also reflect this impression of a new supernatural world. The real and singularly spooky inhabit the region. Upon returning to meet the Mexican people, reconfirmed what had caught his attention: the people, their spirit and their deep attachment to rites and traditions.The children, street vendors, prostitutes, are photographed in stunning clarity despite seeming dream characters.

The generally recognized photographers Cartier Bresson reflection agility to capture the moment, associated with extreme rigor of the composition. The shadows, lights and textures Photo noble elements, listed in your photos with the subject and his story. The result is a complex picture, evocative, which marked a fundamental trend in twentieth century photography.With his famous Leica, Henri Cartier-Bresson practice, as did the Surrealists he frequented, automatic writing applied to the world of the picture: "Shoot, he said, is to put on the same line of sight the head, the eye and the heart . Photography is a way of life. "His work brings out the best of the apparent banality to reveal aspects and dimension of the universal.

Children, men and women, the faces of Mexico posed no objections to the Lens Cartier-Bresson, on both trips photographer found that Mexican identity and their roots intact prevailed despite the years. Mexican Papers," a collection of photographs of French Henri Cartier-Bresson exhibit at the Museum of Art of El Salvador (MARTE).The exhibition, mounted in collaboration with the French Embassy in the country, includes images captured by the master of photography in 1934 and 1964. Each of the images is a portrait of the history of Latin American society of Mesoamerican culture. Cartier-Bresson took photographs each waiting for the "decisive moment", a term coined by the photographer and that was to capture the image at the right time.

Mexican Notebooks" are images of everyday life and social reality of the country. The collection shows the devotion of Cartier-Bresson in the street and sample travel and stays albums throughout 1934 and 1963 to 1964. Photographed vendors, women and infants in both Mexico City and in Puebla, lacking the Cuanhtemoctzin street prostitutes, the contours of the volcano Popocatepetl, Tlaxcala, near Tlaxcala Zapotec children playing naked in Juchitan and other images Patzcuaro banquets accompanying high society at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.It also includes a number of sleepers, such as a small shepherd resting guarded by a lazy dog, people in Uruapan, a couple wrapped in a serape; drunk fallen hats or grandparent of Michoacan with his beloved rocking chair or a sleeping woman at the foot a table in Juchitan. The exhibition "Mexican Notebooks" is the nearest approach to the Salvadoran reality, so we intend to bring to the country. The introduction of the photo in the press is a very important phenomenon.

Changes the view of the masses. Until then the man could not see the events unfolding right before him in the street, in your town.With photography opens a window on the world. The public faces of the characters, the events that occur in the country or beyond its borders.

With the expansion of the world look down. The written word is abstract but concrete is the mirror image of a world in which everything can be seen.  We live in a world icon. The images form a set of codes that need to be deciphered. These represent a language of their own and you need a code to decipher image interpretation. The power of photography is symbolic and emotional.

And even though the new age of technology is handled media is photography which is always present in all (cinema, television, press) and can not be replaced. To create a picture you have to see the world from a perspective, who gets a better view of the world, get a better photo. The camera fits in our eyes, in our particular point of view. Because that represent the images, different views of reality.

Photographed as we live life. Cartier Bresson's work was characterized by its naturalness and image quality to capture the 'right time'.It is considered social or photojournalist photographer, by the way that captured the depth of the facts, context and historical reality of the events. Recorded and document many events with a view such that their images have transcended. (1908-2004) He was born on August 22, 1908 in Chanteloup, Seine-et-Marne, in the bosom of a family that belonged to the French bourgeoisie.

This instilled a love of art, his parents were only interested in painting, for this reason was educated at the Lycee Condorcet in Paris, but did not graduate. Alongside his education at the Lyceum, independently studied painting with two different teachers.Between 1927 and 1928 he studied with the cubist painter Andre Lhote, during these formative years develops visual training that would serve as the framework for his art as a photographer. In 1929 Bresson performed compulsory military service and upon his return part to Cameroon, west of the African continent. During this time he acquired his first camera and launch the search of adventure, of which only read in the books of his youth. With virtually no possessions, Bresson lived by hunting, killing wild animals and selling meat markets.

If it had not contracted blackwater fever could have been more than a year in Africa. Once his health recovered he returned to France. After revealing the photographs from his trip to Africa loses its intense desire to paint and bought his first Leica camera in 1933, the same who would accompany him throughout his successful career. Begins to "feel" the picture and then in an interview, admitted that after his trip to Africa, ".

.. the adventurer in me felt obliged to testify with a quicker instrument than a brush, the scars of the world" .His first exhibition was opened in 1932 at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York, and that year he also published his first story in the magazine Vu. In 1934, he traveled to Mexico with a team of photographers engaged in an ethnographic project sponsored by the U.

S. government. Due to bureaucratic problems the project fails, however Bresson decided to extend their stay in this country for a year, continuing its "capture" marginal people and places in society. He exhibits his photographs in the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City. In 1937 he began working for various magazines and newspapers as a photojournalist.He was called up in 1940 for the film and photo unit of the French army during World War II, the Germans arrested him for 35 months.

After three attempts to escape from the prison of Wuttemberg heading to Paris, where he worked for the Resistance in 1943. He organized the shoot and photographed the Occupation and Liberation of Paris. In 1945 went to the information office of United States military, the documentary Le retour (The Return). He returned to the United States in 1946, where he met and photographed many writers and artists such as William Faulkner, Alfred Stieglitz and Saul Steinberg.Highlight anecdotally that this year attended the exhibition at the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art in New York) had organized after believe died in the war.

In 1947 along with Capa, Saymour and Rodger founded Magnum agency for twenty years and has traveled around the world being considered one of the most important journalists of his time. Cartier documented acts as important as the funeral of Gandhi, Civil War in China, among others ... His first book was published in 1952 entitled Images a la Sauvette.

In 1955, by invitation of the Louvre Museum in Paris, was the first photographer who exhibited his work there.He left Magnum in 1966 back to drawing and painting, but continued with photography. He recorded the liberation of France by the end of the world war, he traveled to Russia, China and Cuba to verify the establishment, development and evolution of communism. Therefore it is considered the father of photojournalism. For him "Photography is, at the same moment, the simultaneous recognition of the significance of a fact and the rigorous organization of forms visually perceived which express and signify that fact".He died at age 95 on August 3, 2004 at his residence "Le Claux" north of Marseille-France.

Some of his collections are: The Decisive Moment (1952), The World of Henri Cartier-Bresson (1968), Henri Cartier-Bresson (1980), Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Early Work published by Peter Glassi in New York (1987) . Never cut the negatives is complete positivan without frame or cut anything. It is a photographer who can compose rigorously observing the gestures, the juxtapositions of elements and shoots in the brief moment when all create a meaningful set, which he defines as the turning point.