St-Lazare Station,Paris 1932

Paris 1952

A Message from Cartier-Bresson Yoshitomo Kajikawa

It was autumn, 1996 that I received a letter from Henri Cartier-Bresson urging me to visit Paris. January 13, 1997 - the day I paid my first visit to Cartier-Bresson - proved to be freezingly cold. The great photo-artist's studio was located on the fifth and the highest floor of the apartment house where Cezanne and Monet once lived on the third and fourth floor, respectively. I now fondly recall how tense I was when I got in the manually-operated elevator I suspect is the oldest in the entire Paris. I commuted to Cartier-Bresson's studio for three days running to make a selection of his works for the exhibition at our museum. He brought out hundreds of his photographs, some in copies, others in books and still others in originals. He placed the pictures on the table, one at a time, and ordered me to make an instant decision whether I would take it or not. Breaking into a terrible cold sweat, I finally selected 120 pictures. There was complete change in his facial expression between the time before and after I had made five to six selections. When the entire selection process came to a close, Cartier-Bresson was gracious enough to comment that the group of pictures I had chosen was the one that satisfied him most in the world. Cartier-Bresson traveled widely throughout the world - Mexico, Spain, the United States, India, Russia, China, Japan... He kept on capturing "decisive moments" in world history, including Gandhi's funeral, liberation of Russia, the eve of the Spanish Civil War and myriad others. I believe he said he had "smelled" something before he stumbled upon such moments. In the period when Cartier-Bresson was an active photographer, each and every city in the world had a peculiar "smell" of its own, and all the peoples of the world had at least something in common. He may very well have tried to capture such "smells" and "something". He definitely found his camera to be highly effective. Undoubtedly, there once were areas where cameras alone were potent as tools of expression. Cartier-Bresson has photographed "the times". In other words, he has photographed people. Ought we not to perceive his abandonment of photography as an expression of his criticism against the present time - a declaration that only in the times and the people can we find the subjects of photography? As long as we can take pictures with a simple push of our forefinger, I for one cannot but believe that there ought to be certain qualifications for those who take photographs. (Director, Kahitsukan - Kyoto Museum of Contemporary Art) (Translated by Atsuo Tsuruoka)

Biography

1908 Born 22 August at Chanteloup, Seine-et-Marne. 1927-28 Studies painting with Andre Lhote. 1931 Goes out of curiosity to the Ivory Coast, where he stays for a year. On returning to Europe, takes his first photographs. 1932 Exhibits at the Julien Levy Gallery, New York. His photographs are subsequently shown by Ignacio Sanchez Mejias and Guillermo de Torre at Cercle Atheneo, Madrid. Charles Peignot also publishes him in Arts et Metiers Graphiques. 1936 Acts as second production assistant to Jean Renoir. 1937 Makes a documentary on the hospitals of Republican Spain, Victoire de la vie. 1940 Taken prisoner by the Germans, he succeeds in escaping after two unsuccessful attempts. 1943 Takes portraits of artists and writers(Matisse, Bonnard, Braque, Claudel, Rouault, etc.) for Editions Braun. 1946 Spends more than a year in the United States completing a "posthumous" exhibition that had been initiated by The Museum of Modern Art in New York in the belief that he had disappeared during the war. 1947 Founds the cooperative agency Magnum with Robert Capa, David Seymour, and Georges Rodger. 1948-50 Spends three years in the Far East, particularly in China and in Indonesia at the time of independence. 1958-59 Returns to China for three months on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the People's Republic. 1960 After completing a photo-reportage in Cuba, he returns after almost thirty years to Mexico and stays there for four months. Subsequently visits Canada. 1965 Spends six months in India and three months in Japan. 1974 Devotes himself to drawing. 1981 Awards the grand prize of the France National Photography Award. 1986 Receives the Novecento Award from Jorge Luis Borges in Palermo. 1989 HCB Award is established by the National Center of Photography, Paris. 1997 Kahitsukan - Kyoto Museum of Contemporary Art adds to its collection 120 of Henri Cartier-Bresson's original prints. 2003 Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation was established.

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Museum Goods Henri Cartier-Bresson Catalogue 2800yen Henri Cartier-Bresson Poster 1000yen Here are All of Kahitsukan's Museum Goods