Exhibition - Henri Cartier-Bresson

"To take a photograph is to align the head, the eye and the heart. It's a way of life." (Henry Cartier Bresson)

HCB is my favorite photographer and recently I had the chance to attend his exhibition in Paris.
On from 10 February to 9 June in Paris's Centre Pompidou, it brings together 350 photographs taken between the early 30s and the end of the 70s.
Look back on the 20th century through the lens of HCB, and it's all there: the jazz age of the 1920s, colonial Africa, the Spanish civil war, developing human rights, capitalist expansion, two world wars, Ghandi's funeral, decolonisation, Mao, the first man in space, America booming, student protests, the collapse of the Soviet bloc – all captured in black and white.
The ambitious show, which aims to showcase his "incredible eye", has been made possible by a collaboration between the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation and Magnum Photos.

The Pompidou's exhibition underlines the reach and diversity of his images, where other retrospectives have tended to focus on the unity of the work.
By placing his photography at the roots of the surrealist avant-garde – not surprising, given the location – the exhibition explores all the ramifications of this idea – from social engagement to visual experiences, from Parisian shop windows to American baseball matches and from Communist journals to Mexican alleyways.

HCB was the patient photographer: he knew how to wait for the decisive moment.
He was the photographer with perfect geometry: the formal harmony of his shots is masterly.
HCB was the discreet photographer: he never intruded into the scenes he photographed, so he didn’t interfere with what was happening.

Dubbed, and with good reason, “the eye of the century”, HCB created many photos that are classics of twentieth-century photography.
He knew how to catch the decisive moment, the spontaneity of everyday events as they occurred, and record its immediacy for all time.
As his famous and much-repeated quote has it: "Photography is, for me, a spontaneous impulse coming from an ever attentive eye which captures the moment and its eternity."
It’s a goal that only a few photographers have reached, and then only with a few lucky shots.
HCB though seemed to touch the heights and pin down the world in every shot.
Always in the right place at the right time, HBC photographed historically important events as they were happening – the political demonstrations in Paris in the 50s, Gandhi’s funeral in India and the deportation camps at Dessau – but also the small stories you find in town squares – the sensuality of a smiling prostitute or the happiness and joyfulness of children in the street.

The wide selection of his work I saw in Paris remembered me that, as HCB often said, the beauty of a photograph lies in the moment when it’s taken.
He wasn’t greatly devoted to the photos he had created, but rather had a hunger for new images and visions.
He was always on the hunt for his best photo, the one he was about to take.