The late photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson spent his long and varied career traveling the world and capturing images of everyone from children to cultural icons.
Beautiful but unsentimental street photography of children was one of the surprises offered by the sweeping survey “The World of Henri Cartier-Bresson,” at Peter Fetterman Gallery, in Santa Monica, California, in 2021. Some of the images are iconic, like Cartier-Bresson’s historic 1950s photographs for Life magazine of a newly Communist China and his portraits of cultural lions like Henri Matisse, Alberto Giacometti and Samuel Beckett. But nearly half the images, Fetterman said, were printed specifically at the gallery’s request and had not been widely exhibited or published.
One of the most striking discoveries was a 1954 image of five Russian girls standing in second position at a wrought-iron-and-wood ballet barre. The coolly elegant blond girl closest to the camera looks no more than 10 or 12 years old, but her calf muscles are as defined as those of an adult track star. “Rue Mouffetard, Paris,” from 1954, captures a boy grinning from ear to ear as he walks along a city street toward the lens — and presumably toward home — carrying with chin jutted out and visible pride a wine bottle under each arm. This picture, in which all elements conspire to highlight the boy’s swagger (notice the girls noticing the boy), is an illustration of capturing “the decisive moment,” which Cartier-Bresson famously defined and which modernists took as the ultimate goal of photography, although others later were more skeptical.
Born in 1908 in Chanteloup-en-Brie, France, the oldest of five children, Cartier-Bresson studied art and literature in school, refusing to join his father’s prosperous textile business. In 1931, he traveled to Africa to hunt wild game and found that he preferred a different kind of shoot: taking pictures with a small box camera.
On his return to France, Cartier-Bresson bought a Leica with a 50mm lens — the camera he called the “extension of my eye” and used for decades. He soon began working as a photojournalist, traveling the globe to capture everyday moments as well as some of the defining political events of the 20th century, from Gandhi’s funeral in 1948 and the fall of the Kuomintang in China in 1949 to the student uprising in Paris in 1968.
Cartier-Bresson was himself caught up in conflict. A French army officer during World War II, he was detained as a prisoner of war by the Nazis, prompting rumors he’d been killed. His photography was taken seriously enough at this time that the Museum of Modern Art in New York began preparing what it believed would be a posthumous retrospective of his work. The show took place in 1947, when the photographer was abundantly alive and well, and busy cofounding the great photo agency Magnum. MoMA has been a guardian and champion of his work ever since.
Find original Henri Cartier-Bresson black-and-white photography on 1stDibs.
Henri Cartier-Bresson, Rome, Italy, Black and White Print, Signed, c. 1990
By Henri Cartier-Bresson
Located in London, GB
Signed Silver gelatin print, printed circa 1990 Image 17 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches Paper 20 x 15 3/4 inches Henri Cartier-Bresson is perhaps the most significant photographer of the twent...
Silver Gelatin
Jacques Tati and Alain Becourt - Photograph by Henri Cartier-Bresson - 1958
By Henri Cartier-Bresson
Located in Roma, IT
Vintage b/w photograph realized by Henri Cartier-Bresson in 1958. Copyright: Magnum Photos and Agenzia Contrasto. Excellent condition.
Photographic Paper
Marilyn Monroe
By Henri Cartier-Bresson
Located in Santa Monica, CA
Signed in ink on recto
Silver Gelatin
Aquila Degli Abruzzi, Italy
By Henri Cartier-Bresson
Located in Santa Monica, CA
Signed in ink on recto Gelatin silver print Image: 14 x 9 1/2 inches, Paper: 15 7/8 x 12 inches, Mat: 20 x 16
Silver Gelatin
Price Upon Request
On the Banks of the Marne
By Henri Cartier-Bresson
Located in New York, NY
Signed by the photographer
Silver Gelatin
Henri Matisse at His Home, 'le Reve', Vence, France
By Henri Cartier-Bresson
Located in London, GB
Stamped with photographer's copyright ink stamp on reverse
Silver Gelatin
Price Upon Request
Siphnos, Greece
By Henri Cartier-Bresson
Located in Santa Monica, CA
signed by artist in ink with artist's embossed stamp on recto
Silver Gelatin
$5,000
H 11 in W 14 in
Eve Babitz and Marcel Duchamp playing chess during Duchamp's Pasadena Art Museum
By Julian Wasser
Located in New York, NY
Listing is for an unframed print and includes free shipping to the continental US and 14-day return policy. Julian Wasser Eve Babitz and Marcel Duchamp pl...
Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin
Joan and Quintana Roo (Frame 27a.)
By Julian Wasser
Located in New York, NY
Listing includes free shipping for unframed prints and a 14 day return policy. Joan Didion by Julian Wasser 20 x 16 inch gelatin silver print Edition 3 of 15 Signed on verso by Julian Wasser *Please inquire for international shipments. Quotes will be provided at cost via FedEx. Description - Julian Wasser started his career in photography in the Washington DC bureau of the Associated Press where he met and accompanied the famous news photographer Weegee – who would become a lasting influence on him. In the mid-60s Wasser moved to Los Angeles as a contract photographer for TIME, LIFE, and FORTUNE magazines and becoming internationally known as the go to guy for getting candid but memorably composed photographs. (His iconic images of Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston; Marcel Duchamp and Eve Babitz; and a young Jodie Foster are already classics.) In 1968 TIME Magazine assigned Wasser to go to the home of the young writer Joan Didion whose book Slouching Towards Bethlehem was becoming a literary sensation. “I’d read her fiction,” said Wasser. “and she didn’t miss a thing. She was such a heavyweight person.” Wasser shot Didion at her rented house on Franklin Avenue in Hollywood, where she lived with her husband, the writer John Gregory Dunne, and their daughter, Quintana Roo. “It was a nice, cozy house,” Wasser remembers. “And she was a very easy person to talk to...
Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin
$950
H 10 in W 8 in D 0.07 in
DOUGLAS JULEFF Vintage 1950s Photograph of "Beefcake" model MAYNARD KEITH #2
Located in Glenford, NY
Rare early 1950s Original Vintage Gelatin Silver Photograph by DOUGLAS JULEFF - also known as DOUG OF DETROIT - of model MAYNARD KEITH. This is #2 of a series of 4 images of Maynard ...
Silver Gelatin
Fern Spring, Dusk, Yosemite
By Ansel Adams
Located in Pacific Grove, CA
This silver gelatin print with exemplary provenance is unsigned but bears several stamps from the artist's family on the back of the mount, including the authentication stamp of Adam...
Silver Gelatin
$875
H 10 in W 8 in D 0.07 in
DOUGLAS JULEFF Vintage 1950s Photograph of "Beefcake" model Unidentified #3
Located in Glenford, NY
Rare early 1950s Original Vintage Gelatin Silver Photograph by DOUGLAS JULEFF - also known as DOUG OF DETROIT - of an unidentified model (Unidentified #3). All of Juleff's records we...
Silver Gelatin
$4,851
H 30 in W 20 in
Catherine Zeta-Jones (Limited Edition of 25) - Celebrity Photography
Located in New York, NY
This 1991 fine art print features Catherine Zeta-Jones when she was a TV actress in Britain and aspiring to be a Hollywood Star. Her success in The Darling Buds of May (English comed...
Silver Gelatin
$3,597
H 9.45 in W 11.82 in
Nude Paris Willy Ronis 20th Century French Humanist photography black and white
By Willy Ronis
Located in Paris, FR
Willy Ronis is one of the most famous members of the French Humanist photography. Silver print on photographic paper Hand-signed by the artist lower right Stamp of the artist's stud...
Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin
$2,450
H 10 in W 8 in D 0.065 in
Art Critic (Head Extended on Spring Before Post War Painting)
Located in Camden, ME
Henry Rox Art Critic (Head Extended on Spring Before Abstract Painting) c. 1948 Vintage silver gelatin print 8 x 10 inches Printed c. 1948 Estate stamp verso This 8 × 10 inch vintag...
Silver Gelatin
$3,597
H 15.75 in W 11.82 in
The Hair Willy Ronis Humanist black and white photography woman naked nude
By Willy Ronis
Located in Paris, FR
Willy Ronis is one of the most famous members of the French Humanist photography. Silver print on photographic paper Hand-signed by the artist lower right Stamp of the artist's stud...
Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin
$5,216
H 11.82 in W 21.26 in
A Man Feeding Swans in the Snow - Grand Prix NYPH New York Photo Festival 2015
By Marcin Ryczek
Located in Salzburg, AT
The photo is signed and stamped on the front by Marcin Ryczek and will be send unframed A Man Feeding Swans in the Snow (2013) - edition 25 in format 30...
Photographic Paper
$6,930
H 40 in W 30 in
Actress Gina Bellman (Limited Edition of 25) - 30x40 In - Celebrity Photography
Located in New York, NY
This iconic 1989 photograph features actress Gina Bellman posing on top of a column, accompanied by two monkeys. It was shot by celebrity and fashion phot...
Silver Gelatin
$4,158
H 40 in W 30 in
Jane March (Limited Edition of 25) - 30"x40" Celebrity Photography
Located in New York, NY
This fine art print features actress and model Jane March, posed topless on the rooftop of the Hotel Le Bristol in Paris in 1992. This risqué iconic b...
Silver Gelatin
Swimmers
By Henri Cartier-Bresson
Located in New York, NY
This photogravure was taken by the famous Henri Cartier-Bresson. He is long considered one of the greatest photographers of people and done in such a way that his images speak over ...
Photogravure
Roman Amphitheater, Valencia, Spain
By Henri Cartier-Bresson
Located in New York, NY
Signed in ink in the margin, includes black frame with white mat. Henri Cartier-Bresson intuitively chronicled decisive moments of human life around the world with poetic documentar...
Silver Gelatin
HENRI MATISSE, VENCE, FRANCE
By Henri Cartier-Bresson
Located in Aventura, FL
Gelatin silver print. Printed circa 1970s. Signed in ink and copyright credit blindstamp in the margin. Sheet size 11.75 x 17.625 inches. Image size approx 9.5 x 14 inches. Frame siz...
Paper, Silver Gelatin
Sold
H 14 in W 9.5 in
Bougival, Yvelines, France, 1956 - Henri Cartier-Bresson (Black and White)
By Henri Cartier-Bresson
Located in London, GB
Bougival, Yvelines, France, 1956 - Henri Cartier-Bresson (Black and White) Signed and stamped with the photographer's blind stamp Silver gelatin print, printed 1980s 11 x 14 inches ...
Silver Gelatin
Sold
H 14 in W 9.5 in
Tarascon, France, 1959 - Henri Cartier-Bresson (Black and White Photography)
By Henri Cartier-Bresson
Located in London, GB
Tarascon, France, 1959 - Henri Cartier-Bresson (Black and White Photography) Signed and stamped with photographers blindstamp Silver gelatin print 16 x 20 inches Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004), arguably the most significant photographer of the twentieth-century, was one of the co-founders of Magnum Photos in 1947 and champion of the “decisive moment...
Silver Gelatin
Queen Charlotte's Ball
By Henri Cartier-Bresson
Located in Santa Monica, CA
What makes Henri Cartier-Bresson’s vast body of work so universally impressive is that he was seemingly present at every significant event and in the intimate company of every import...
Silver Gelatin
Sold
H 11 in W 14 in
Ivry-Sur-Seine, 1955 - Henri Cartier-Bresson (Black and White Photography)
By Henri Cartier-Bresson
Located in London, GB
Ivry-Sur-Seine, 1955 - Henri Cartier-Bresson (Black and White Photography) Signed and stamped with photographer's blind stamp Silver gelatin print, printed 1980s 11 x 14 inches Henr...
Silver Gelatin
HENRI MATISSE, VENCE, FRANCE
By Henri Cartier-Bresson
Located in Aventura, FL
Gelatin silver print. Printed circa 1970s. Signed in ink and copyright credit blindstamp in the margin. Sheet size 11.75 x 17.625 inches. Image size approx 9.5 x 14 inches. Frame siz...
Paper, Silver Gelatin
Sold
H 13.5 in W 9 in
Cape Cod Woman on the Fourth of July, Documentary Portrait Photography
By Henri Cartier-Bresson
Located in New york, NY
As to 4th of July, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA, 1947, Henri Cartier-Bresson said about his portrait: "This woman explained to me that the flagpole over her door was broken but on a ...
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin
Rangoon, Burma, vintage gelatin silver print, stamped
By Henri Cartier-Bresson
Located in New york, NY
Rangoon, Burma, 1948 by legendary French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson is a vintage gelatin silver print, stamped verso. Burmese girl...
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin
Sold
H 12 in W 8 in
Hamburg, Germany, vintage gelatin silver print, stamped
By Henri Cartier-Bresson
Located in New york, NY
Hamburg, Germany, 1962-1953 by legendary French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson is a vintage gelatin silver print, stamped verso. Photo...
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin
France, vintage gelatin silver print, stamped
By Henri Cartier-Bresson
Located in New york, NY
France, 1960 by legendary French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson is a vintage gelatin silver print, stamped verso. Henri Cartier-Bresson. born on August 22, 1908 in Chanteloup, France, is a pioneer in photojournalism. A French humanist photographer considered master of candid photography...
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin