In the late 1970s, Henri Cartier-Bresson and his publisher Robert Delpire decided to produce a book spanning his entire career, entitled Henri Cartier-Bresson Photographe. Since its first publication more than forty years ago, it has been translated into seven languages, reprinted eleven times and regarded as an essential reference on the master.
 
 
 
Through 155 images taken between 1926 and 1978, the photographer often called “the eye of the century” presents his intimate vision of a world whose landscapes he explored, whose people — artists, writers and anonymous individuals — he encountered, and whose major historical events he immortalised.
 
 
 
A major figure in twentieth-century photography, Cartier-Bresson regarded his camera as an extension of his eye. This underscores his unparalleled gift for spontaneously composing images that evoke the mystery, humour and universality of the people and moments captured by his lens. Some of his photographs, such as Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare, have become icons, studied in secondary schools and recognised as masterpieces of twentieth-century art.
 
 
 
About the author
 
After studying painting, Henri Cartier-Bresson decided to pursue photography. In 1931, he bought his first Leica and travelled in Europe. His work quickly attracted attention, appearing in magazines and galleries in France and abroad. In 1947, he exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. That same year, he founded the Magnum Photos cooperative with Robert Capa, George Rodger, David Seymour and William Vandivert. In 1951, he met Robert Delpire, beginning a great friendship that would lead to many collaborations. In 1952, he published Images à la sauvette with Tériade, featuring a cover by Henri Matisse. He continued travelling and publishing his reportage until 1974, when he left Magnum Photos and relinquished his membership to devote himself to drawing. Cartier-Bresson died in 2004, a year after the creation of the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris.