Photographer Research 3: Henri Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier-Bresson, born 1908, was a French photographer who was famous for his photographs of people and movement. I have chosen this photographer to write about in detail due to the fact that he links strongly to the topic I chose to work on, which is evidence. In the future I plan to take photographs of the evidence of movement and the evidence of human presence, both of which are seen in many of Henri Cartier-Bresson's work. The first example of a photograph that shows the evidence of movement is perhaps one of his most well known photographs. This photo shows a high angle shot of a man riding a bike, but the movement of the biker is blurred, therefore showing that he is in motion. I think this photograph has inspired me to think of ways I can create evidence of movement within my own work, using specific settings on my camera to make objects in motion look like they are in motion.

The second way in which Henri Cartier-Bresson has helped/inspired me in the evidence topic is through another photograph that shows the evidence of human presence, as well as the evidence of damage/destruction. This photograph was taken after a bombing in New York, and portrays the effects on the environment of such an event. This photograph has inspired me to take photographs of the evidence of damage that humans have inflicted on the planet, specifically damage that humans have inflicted on each other's environments/homes. I also think that Cartier-Bresson was trying to show the extreme side of what was occurring during the war by taking the photograph from this angle.

Another photograph by Henri Cartier-Bresson shows the evidence of movement, as well as the evidence of reflection. This photograph was one of his most famous pieces, showing a man running across some puddles outside what appears to be a train station. I think this photograph is inspiring because he has managed to capture reflection in these photographs without orchestrating it, by simply taking the photograph in the right moment. I hope to capture something like this in the future of my course, perhaps showing the evidence of movement through vehicles such as trains and cars. 

The fourth and final photograph by Henri Cartier-Bresson that I will be talking about is one showing the evidence of shadows/silhouettes. This photograph depicts a silhouette of a man with an umbrella jumping in front of the Eiffel Tower, with a man and a woman standing close to each other in the background. I liked this photograph due to the fact that we are unable to see who these people are, so instead of noticing what they look like, we notice what they are doing and where they are before anything else. I think this photograph is inspiring to me because I would like to take a photograph of someone but only show their silhouette, perhaps to show the evidence of shadows/silhouettes or maybe an extension on the evidence of human presence.

Henri Cartier-Bresson has influenced me in many ways as I researched him and the photographs he has taken. As I mentioned in this post, Cartier-Bresson has influenced me in terms of creating photographs that show the evidence of various things such as movement, damage, human presence, reflection, and shadows/silhouettes. Out of these topics, I am most interested in capturing the evidence of movement, due to the fact that I think to produce a photograph that shows this in good quality might be quite difficult, and somewhat of a challenge. Also, I think the evidence of reflection might be good to capture in one of my future sessions, for I really like the photographs Henri Cartier-Bresson captured of reflection.

To summarise, Henri Cartier-Bresson is one of my favourite photographers in terms of how broad his work is, and how many formal elements there are in each one of his photographs. I will attempt to recreate some of his work in my own style in the future, whether it is within the evidence topic, or sometime in the next year, but I will definitely remember Cartier-Bresson's work and how it has changed my opinion in some aspects of what is a good photograph.