HENRI

Master of elegance, painterly photos, humanity as a dance of shapes and forms, surrealism, documenting history and humanity, dynamism and energy in photos, photos of people as human sculpture, seeing the world as beautiful (in spite of all the pain and destruction), variety of imagery, grandeur of ambition, extreme self-discipline, worldly travels, pioneering the ‘decisive moment‘ concept, boldness in shooting, love of art, love of people, his sense of ‘visual play’ (composition as a fun game), layered composition photos.

I actually believe that Henri Cartier-Bresson is under-rated. Why? We only know him for his iconic photos, but his lesser well-known photos are also insanely epic!

Henri’s only fault:

He eventually stopped innovating in photography and got bored with it, then gave up photography, and picked up painting/drawing instead (which he actually wasn’t very good at).

This is a sign of a man who has wearied of life. Perhaps he was ultimately a pessimist? Perhaps fame did him a disservice? (apparently he hated that the public only liked his puddle jumping photos, and not his other works which HCB considered greater).