Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1908 - 2004.

He combined a Rabelaisian appetite for the world with a clarity of vision and intellectual rigor that linked him to French masters like Poussin. His wit, lyricism and ability to see the geometry of a fleeting image and capture it in the blink of an eye reshaped and created a new standard for the art of photography.

Michael Kimmelman in the New York Times.

He abhorred artificial lighting, including flash, never used a wide-angle lens, and never cropped his prints.... The "decisive moment," he said, was "the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as the precise organisation of forms which give that event its proper expression."

Jon Henley in the Guardian which has set up a special section on Cartier-Bresson.

His pictures showed the new-found mobility of the camera; he made you want to go out and take pictures.

Former Guardian picture editor Eamonn McCabe.

A portfolio at Magnum Photos.

"Tête à Tête," an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. More on the exhibition from the Washington Post.

Photology.

At the Peter Fetterman Gallery.

And if you happen to be in Berlin, the retrospective at the Martin-Gropius-Bau runs through August 15.

Posted by dwhudson at August 5, 2004 4:26 AM