Everyone has got some preconceptions, but you have to readjust them in front of reality. Reality has the last word. Henri Cartier-Bresson More Quotes by Henri Cartier-Bresson More Quotes From Henri Cartier-Bresson Poetry is the essence of everything, and it’s through deep contact with reality and living fully that you reach poetry. Very often I see photographers cultivating the strangeness or awkwardness of a scene, thinking it is poetry. No. Poetry is two elements which are suddenly conflict — a spark between two elements. But it’s given very seldom, and you can’t look for it. It’s like if you look for inspiration. No, it just comes by enriching yourself and living. Henri Cartier-Bresson inspirationrealitythinking In photography, the smallest thing can become a big subject, an insignificant human detail can become a leitmotiv. We see and we make seen as a witness to the world around us; the event, in its natural activity, generates an organic rhythm of forms. Henri Cartier-Bresson detailseventsphotography 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 disciplineattitudeorder For me the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the master of the instant which, in visual terms, questions and decides simultaneously. It is by economy of means that one arrives at simplicity of expression. Henri Cartier-Bresson expressionmeanbook I adore shooting photographs. It's like being a hunter. But some hunters are vegetarians - which is my Henri Cartier-Bresson huntersshootingphotography Pictures should never be posed. They are 'revealed' so must be accepted as they are. Left alone. Henri Cartier-Bresson acceptedphotographyshould 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 numbersgivingnegative Nobody takes photographs, photographs take you. Henri Cartier-Bresson photograph We cannot develop and print a memory. Henri Cartier-Bresson vanishingprintmemories Above all, I craved to seize the whole essence, in the confines of one single photograph, of some situation that was in the process of unrolling itself before my eyes. Henri Cartier-Bresson eyephotographyessence I suddenly understood that photography can fix eternity in a moment. It is the only photo that influenced me. There is such intensity in this image, such spontaneity, such joie de vivre, such miraculousness, that even today it still bowls me over. Henri Cartier-Bresson spontaneityphotographytoday Rene Char wrote somewhere, apropos poetry, that there are those who create and those who discover; they are too completely different worlds. Photograph also has two sides to it and thank goodness, I am only intersted in those who discover; I feel a certain solidarity with those who set out in a spirit of discovery; I think there is much more risk invovled in this than in trying to create images; and in the end, reality is more important. Henri Cartier-Bresson discoveryrealitythinking Give me inspiration over information. Henri Cartier-Bresson informationinspirationgiving In photography, you've got to be quick, quick, quick, quick...Like an animal and a prey. Henri Cartier-Bresson preyphotographyanimal The photograph itself doesn't interest me. I want only to capture a minute part of reality. Henri Cartier-Bresson photographywantreality 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 photographyrunningbelieve We must respect the atmosphere which surrounds the human being Henri Cartier-Bresson surroundatmospherehumans Photography is simultaneously and instantaneously the recognition of a fact and the rigorous organization of visually perceived forms that express and signify that fact Henri Cartier-Bresson photographyorganizationfacts I am a visual man. I watch, watch, watch. I understand things through my eyes. Henri Cartier-Bresson eyemenwatches It is by great economy of means that one arrives at simplicity of expression. Henri Cartier-Bresson simplicityexpressionmean
