CARTIER-BRESSON, Henri - Man redet immer zu viel. Gespräche 1951-1998

Personal statement by Henri CARTIER-BRESSON

"I am a visual type. I understand through the eyes." (© Henri CARTIER-BRESSON)

Background information

"The photo-text volume 'Conversations about life, art and photography. 1951-1998' is now available - translated from French and English by Marion Kagerer.
Henri CARTIER-BRESSON (1908-2004), master of the 'decisive moment' and the myth of 'malgré lui', made the photographic image the language of his choice. True to his confession, he has created a huge photographic work in black and white, which was style-defining for the 20th century, his illustrated books are 'Bibles' of the photographic guild. In writing he said very little about his work, he left it to his friends writers and art studies to find words for his pictures.

Content

In interviews and conversations, however, he freely gave information - since his epoch-making exhibition in 1947 at the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), he has been a sought-after interview partner for journalists and specialists from all over the world. With verve and esprit, temperament and humor, he tells of his origins, formative influences from Cubism and Surrealism, years of apprenticeship in film with Jean Renoir, early adventure trips to Africa and Mexico, his beloved Leica camera, prisoner of war and Resistance, the founding of the agency 'MAGNUM', trips to India, China, Cuba and the Soviet Union, meeting Gandhi, Fidel Castro and the Dalai Lama; he talks about the pleasure of photographing 'quietly', style and ethos, intuition and geometry, composition and image detail, his admiration for painting and the turn to drawing in old age. In doing so, he corrects many a legend about himself. The volume 'Man redet immer zu viel' (engl. You always talk too much. Conversations about life, art and photography. 1951-1998) brings together twelve large interviews from almost fifty years, which have mostly been difficult to access since their first publication. In view of the flood of secondary literature, it provides authentic information about CARTIER-BRESSON's life and work in the original language. As a kaleidoscope of an autobiography (which the photographer never wrote), it is the indispensable and exciting addition to the large illustrated books by Henri CARTIER-BRESSON. "(Publisher's text, © Schirmer / Mosel, 2019)

About French Magnum photographer, Henri CARTIER-BRESSON (1908-2004)

Photo books by and with works by Henri CARTIER-BRESSON