Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Biography

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	• Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Biography Pierre Assouline Thames & Hudson, 2005 - 280 pages average customer review:based on 4 reviews view larger image
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Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Biography

For the most part, this book is excellently written--even poetically written, at times. For the person who already appreciates and even worships Henri Cartier-Bresson (as I do) this book is satisfactory. For everyone else, however, this book lacks several important things:

1. Actual reproductions of the photographs specifically mentioned.
2. Aesthetic evaluations of the photographs mentioned.
3. Critical analyses by people not the author.

----Irving Orenstein

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The Decisive Biography?

I'm surprised to be the first reviewer of a biography of one of the worlds most revered photographers.

There are two reasons why I have given this book only three stars.

The first is the lack of photographs. Oh, there are plenty of photos OF Cartier-Bresson, but none BY Cartier-Bresson.
Although Assouline describes some of HCB's work, there are no examples.

Do Assouline and the publisher actually believe that everyone who reads this book is so familiar with HCB that they've memorized his work? More likely they have chosen not to pay the royalties.

The second reason is my disappointment with the almost complete lack of insight into the photographer's thoughts. There's plenty of information about his political beliefs (more than needed in my opinion) but nowhere does one find an explanation of what motivated him to press the shutter release.

These shortcomings aside, this is an immensely readable book. Not only does it go into the details of HCB's life, but it puts them into historical perspective. Cartier-Bresson was present at, and often involved in, some of the most important events of the 20th century.

I would have prefered a bit more detail regarding his time spent as a German prisoner of war during WWII. His meeting with Gandhi shortly before the Mahatma's death was also glossed over.

I got the feeling that Assouline was being extraordinarly kind. There is very little mention of HCB's famous temper or acerbic tongue. That would be fine if this were simply a photography book, but it's supposed to be a biography.

Being a long-time fan of Cartier-Bresson's work I did get a lot of enjoyment out of the book. I'm also familiar enough with his work that the lack of photographs wasn't a hardship. However, unless you intimately know HCB's work, you may want to familiarize yourself with it BEFORE reading the bio.

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A misunderstood book.

This book has been somewhat unfairly reviewed.

I have just read this fine book from cover to cover. Whilst I found it worthy of 4 stars, I have to agree that it has some weaknesses.

- The book really should have some of the photos to which the text often refers.

- The author has assumed that readers have a good knowledge of Henri and his work.

It is not a perfect book, BUT it is a very good book, IF you already have a good idea of Cartier-Bresson's life-story and life's work.

If you are an awe-inspired follower of Henri's photography, as I am, and have a good knowledge of his photos from reading and looking at his many books, you will find this an informative, enjoyable and satisfying read.

If you were to read this in conjunction with a book that includes his most important photo's, such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Photographer, you would be able to gain a great deal from reading this book.

However this is a book for the well-prepared.

I found the many anecdotes and quotations entertaining. They gave me a clearer insight into the man's life and his genius.

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The first full biography ever published?a vivid portrait of this complex, curious, brilliant man.

The twentieth century was the century of the image?and Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004) was the eye of the century. Through the decades, this eye focused on Africa in the 1920s, the tragic fate of the Spanish Republicans, and the victory of the Chinese Communists. It was Cartier-Bresson who fixed in our minds the features of his contemporaries: Giacometti and Sartre as characters from their own works; Mauriac mysteriously levitating; Faulkner, Matisse, Camus, and countless others captured at the decisive moment in portraits for eternity.

An intensely private individual, Cartier-Bresson confided in his close friend Pierre Assouline over a number of years, even opening up his archives to him. Here, for the first time, we read about his youthful devotion to surrealism; his unending passion for drawing; the war and the prison camps; the friends and the women in his life. Assouline provides an acute and perceptive account of the life and philosophy of this icon of our times, and gives us an opportunity to reassess his contribution to twentieth-century photography and reportage. 23 illustrations.

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