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Henri Cartier-Bresson's
Last Decisive Moment
A lot has been written, and more will be, about the life in photography of Henri Cartier-Bresson. If Europe contributed to the medium in the twentieth century, Cartier-Bresson, a.k.a. HCB, probably stood among the best, if not the spear-head of its protagonists. For decades, this now world-famous photographer tried to seize the essence of his time, and crystallize it in the fraction of a second within the frame of his viewfinder. Once he had picked it up, back in the early 19305, his Leica, a brand that he made famous around the world, became the true "extension of his eye."
It all started in 1932 when Leitz Cameras (Lei-Ca) released the second model of a long series of small, "miniature" then, cameras using 35 mm movie film. That model was equipped with its ideal complement, a range-finder, allowing extremely precise focusing. That same year Cartier-Bresson had to leave Africa, where he had been working as a safari guide, because of a lifethreatening case of black fever. They met in Marseille, and never parted. The tool gave the photographer the versatility, discretion, speed, and control that matched his character. Cartier-Bresson gave it his eye and mind trained by the cubist painter André Lhôte, and his experience as a hunter in Africa. For him, from a simple way of seeing, photography became a way of thinking, feeling (with the appropriate distance), and a way of life, an evolution that would be confirmed by, and would extend into his experience of Buddhism.
For years, until he "retired" in the mid-igyos, and dedicated his time to drawing, Magnum allowed him to roam the world while Pierre Gassman, in Paris, would develop his negatives and print them at "Picto," (Pictorial Service Lab). 2004 has been a rather deadly year for photographers: Van Deren Coke, Carl Mydans recently, and, within weeks, on the other side of the ocean, three men, two of whom were photographers, Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004) and Jean-Philippe Charbonnier (-2004), and one darkroom sorcerer, Pierre Gassman. In Henri, a booklet edited by Brigitte oilier and published by Filigranes in 2003, Charbonnier remembered his first meeting with Cartier-Bresson (pp.16-17).
"The Monument [...] I think I met him by chance at Pierre Gassman's Picto, rue...