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To photograph is to hold one's breath, when all faculties converge to capture fleeting reality. It's at that precise moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy.

Henri Cartier-Bresson

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Henri Cartier-Bresson
Age: 95 †
Born: 1908
Born: August 22
Died: 2004
Died: January 1
Film Director
Journalist
Painter
Photographer
Photojournalist
Henri Cartier Bresson
Henri Cartier- Bresson
Henry Cartier-Bresson
Bresson
Moments
Image
Fleeting
Reality
Photography
Precise
Great
Physical
Capture
Intellectual
Faculty
Hold
Breath
Joy
Breaths
Converge
Becomes
Photographer
Mastering
Moment
Photograph
Faculties

More quotes by Henri Cartier-Bresson

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Thinking should be done before and after, not during photographing. Success depends on the extent of one's general culture. one's set of values, one's clarity of mind one's vivacity. The thing to be feared most is the artificially contrived, the contrary to life.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
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Of all the means of expression, photography is the only one that fixes a precise moment in time.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
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In order to give meaning to the world, one has to feel oneself involved in what he frames. This attitude requires concentration, a discipline of mind, sensitivity, and a sense of geometry.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
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Actually, I'm not all that interested in the subject of photography. Once the picture is in the box, I'm not all that interested in what happens next. Hunters, after all, aren't cooks.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
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In every photographer there is something of a stroller.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
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The simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as the precise organization of forms which gives that event its proper expression... In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject. The little human detail can become a leitmotif.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
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During the work, you have to be sure that you haven't left any holes, that you've captured everything, because afterwards it will be too late.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
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The camera is for us a tool, not a pretty mechanical toy ... people think far too much about techniques and not enough about seeing.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
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It is by great economy of means that one arrives at simplicity of expression.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
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What reinforces the content of a photograph is the sense of rhythm - the relationship between shapes and values.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
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Why do photographers start giving numbers to their prints? It’s absurd. What do you do when the 20th print has been done? Do you swallow the negative? Do you shoot yourself? It’s the gimmick of money.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
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For me, the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
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Only a fraction of the camera's possibilities interests me - the marvelous mixture of emotion and geometry, together in a single instant.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
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They ... asked me: 'How do you make your pictures?' I was puzzled ... I said, I don't know, it's not important.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
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Give me inspiration over information.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
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He made me suddenly realize that photographs could reach eternity through the moment.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
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For the world is movement, and you cannot be stationary in your attitude toward something that is moving.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
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One eye looks within, the other eye looks without.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
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The only thing which completely was an amazement to me and brought me to photography was the work of Munkacsi. When I saw the photograph of Munkacsi of the black kids running in a wave, I couldn't believe such a thing could be caught with the camera. I said, 'Damn it', I took my camera and went out into the street.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
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It is the photo that takes you. One must not take photos.
Henri Cartier-Bresson