Henri Cartier-Bresson Quotes
Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French Photographer born on 22 August 1908 in Chanteloup-en-Brie, France, and died on 3 August 2004. He viewed photography as capturing a decisive moment which he explained in his first book, Images à la Sauvette (published in English as The Decisive Moment). He was a True master of his art and received many awards for his work:
- 1948 Overseas Press Club of America Award
- 1953 A.S.M.P. Award
- 1954 Overseas Press Club of America Award
- 1959 Prix de la Société Française de Photographie
- 1960 Overseas Press Club of America Award
- 1964 Overseas Press Club of America Award
- 1975 Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie
- 1975 Culture Prize
- 1981 Grand Prix National de la Photographie
- 1986 Novecento Premio
Here are the Most Famous and Inspirational Henri Cartier-Bresson Quotes that will inspire you and help you get over the artist’s Block.
If you love Henri Cartier-Bresson Quotes, you will like Photography Quotes By Famous Photographers like Robert Capa Quotes, Ansel Adams Quotes, Imogen Cunningham quotes, Annie Leibovitz Quotes, Robert Frank Quotes, and Dorothea Lange Quotes.
Best Henri Cartier-Bresson Quotes About Photography, Art, And A Little About Life
Henri Cartier-Bresson was truly good at photography, drawing, and painting, here are some of the Greatest Henri Cartier-Bresson Quotes to help you in the world of photography and pictures.
- “To take a photograph is to align the head, the eye, and the heart. It’s a way of life” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson
- “Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson
- ‘” For me, the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the master of the instant which, in visual terms, questions and decides simultaneously. It is by the economy of means that one arrives at simplicity of expression.” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson
- “The photograph itself doesn’t interest me. I want only to capture a minute part of reality.” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson
- “To photograph: it is to put on the same line of sight the head, the eye and the heart.” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson
- “A photograph is neither taken or seized by force. It offers itself up. It is the photo that takes you. One must not take photos.” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson
- “The intensive use of photographs by mass media lays ever fresh responsibilities upon the photographer. We have to acknowledge the existence of a chasm between the economic needs of our consumer society and the requirements of those who bear witness to this epoch. This affects us all, particularly the younger generations of photographers. We must take greater care than ever not to allow ourselves to be separated from the real world and from humanity.” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson
- “Of all the means of expression, photography is the only one that fixes a precise moment in time.” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson
- “The creative act lasts but a brief moment, a lightning instant of give-and-take, just long enough for you to level the camera and to trap the fleeting prey in your little box.” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson
- “Above all, I craved to seize the whole essence, in the confines of one single photograph, of some situation that was in the process of unrolling itself before my eyes.” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson
- “Think about the photo before and after, never during. The secret is to take your time. You mustn’t go too fast. The subject must forget about you. Then, however, you must be very quick.” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson
- “To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event.” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson
- “Photography is, for me, a spontaneous impulse coming from an ever-attentive eye which captures the moment and its eternity.” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson
- “This recognition, in real life, of a rhythm of surfaces, lines, and values is for me the essence of photography; composition should be a constant of preoccupation, being a simultaneous coalition – an organic coordination of visual elements.” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson
- “Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera.” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson
- “Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again.” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson
- “Memory is very important, the memory of each photo taken, flowing at the same speed as the event. During the work, you have to be sure that you haven’t left any holes, that you’ve captured everything because afterward, it will be too late.” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson
- “Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again.” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson
- “Reality offers us such wealth that we must cut some of it out on the spot, simplify. The question is, do we always cut out what we should?” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson
- “While we’re working, we must be conscious of what we’re doing.” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson
- “We must avoid however, snapping away, shooting quickly and without thought, overloading ourselves with unnecessary images that clutter our memory and diminish the clarity of the whole.” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson
- “A photographer must always work with the greatest respect for his subject and in terms of his own point of view.” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson
- “In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject. The little, human detail can become a Leitmotiv.” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson
- “Photography is an immediate reaction, drawing is a meditation.” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson
- “You just have to live and life will give you pictures.” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson
- “As time passes by and you look at portraits, the people come back to you like a silent echo. A photograph is a vestige of a face, a face in transit. Photography has something to do with death. It’s a trace.” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson
- “The most difficult thing for me is a portrait. You have to try and put your camera between the skin of a person and his shirt.” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson
- “As far as I am concerned, taking photographs is a means of understanding which cannot be separated from other means of visual expression. It is a way of shouting, of freeing oneself, not of proving or asserting one’s own originality. It is a way of life.” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson
- “Thinking should be done before and after, not during photographing.” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson
- “I believe that, through the act of living, the discovery of oneself is made concurrently with the discovery of the world around us.” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson
- “Of course, it’s all luck.” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson
- “It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera… they are made with the eye, heart, and head.” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson Quotes (French)
- “En la vida como en la fotografía, hay que pasar los negativos a positivos” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson
- “Tus primeras 10.000 fotos serán tus peores fotos.” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson