It is the photo that takes you. One must not take photos. Henri Cartier-Bresson More Quotes by Henri Cartier-Bresson More Quotes From Henri Cartier-Bresson Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again. Henri Cartier-Bresson vanishingphotographyearth 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 camerasphotographytogether Everyone has got some preconceptions, but you have to readjust them in front of reality. Reality has the last word. Henri Cartier-Bresson last-wordslastsreality The camera can be a machine gun, a warm kiss, a sketchbook. Shooting a camera is like saying, Yes, yes, yes. There is no maybe. All the maybes should go in the trash. Henri Cartier-Bresson cameraskissinggun Memory is very important, the memory of each photo taken, flowing at the same speed as the event. Henri Cartier-Bresson importanttakenmemories Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst. Henri Cartier-Bresson photographinspirationalfirsts With the one eye that is closed, one looks within, with the other eye that is open, one looks without. Henri Cartier-Bresson eyelooks Think about the photo before and after, never during. The secret is to take your time. You mustn't go too fast. The subject must forget about you. Then, however, you must be very quick. Henri Cartier-Bresson photographysecretthinking There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative. Oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever. Henri Cartier-Bresson eyephotographyexpression Thinking should be done before and after, not during photographing. Henri Cartier-Bresson photographydonethinking ...it is seldom indeed that a composition which was poor when the picture was taken can be improved by reshaping it in the dark room. Henri Cartier-Bresson photographytakendark The creative act lasts but a brief moment, a lightning instant of give-and-take, just long enough for you to level the camera and to trap the fleeting prey in your little box. Henri Cartier-Bresson creativityphotographyart For the world is movement, and you cannot be stationary in your attitude toward something that is moving. Henri Cartier-Bresson movementattitudemoving Freedom for me is a strict frame, and inside that frame are all the variations possible. Henri Cartier-Bresson strictvariation 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 photographyjoyreality I believe that, through the act of living, the discovery of oneself is made concurrently with the discovery of the world around us. Henri Cartier-Bresson photographydiscoverybelieve 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 photographyorganizationexpression 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 huntersnextphotography All I care about these days is painting — photography has never been more than a way into painting, a sort of instant drawing. Henri Cartier-Bresson drawingcarephotography As far as I am concerned, taking photographs is a means of understanding which cannot be separated from other means of visual expression. It is a way of shouting, of freeing oneself, not of proving or asserting one's own originality. It is a way of life. Henri Cartier-Bresson photographyexpressionmean
