Henri Cartier-Bresson Quotes

20 Sourced Quotes

We 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
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
To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which give that event its proper expression.

Henri Cartier-Bresson
In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject. The little, human detail can become a Leitmotiv.

Henri Cartier-Bresson
The adventurer in me felt obliged to testify with a quicker instrument than a brush to the scars of the world.

Henri Cartier-Bresson
It is through living that we discover ourselves, at the same time as we discover the world around us.

Henri Cartier-Bresson
Culture shock is often felt sharply at the borders between countries, but sometimes it doesn't hit fully until you've been in a place for a long time.

Henri Cartier-Bresson
We must respect the atmosphere which surrounds the human being

Henri Cartier-Bresson
The camera is for us a tool, not a pretty mechanical toy... people think far too much about techniques and not enough about seeing.

Henri Cartier-Bresson
Photography appears to be an easy activity; in fact it is a varied and ambiguous process in which the only common denominator among its practitioners is in the instrument.

Henri Cartier-Bresson
In photography you've got to be quick, quick, quick, like an animal and a prey.

Henri Cartier-Bresson
Photography is, for me, a spontaneous impulse coming from an ever attentive eye which captures the moment and its eternity.

Henri Cartier-Bresson
I am a visual man. I watch, watch, watch. I understand things through my eyes.

Henri Cartier-Bresson
Of all the means of expression, photography is the only one that fixes a precise moment in time.

Henri Cartier-Bresson
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
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
The picture-story involves a joint operation of the brain, the eye and the heart. The objective of this joint operation is to depict the content of some event which is in the process of unfolding, and to communicate impressions. Sometimes a single event can be so rich in itself and its facets that it is necessary to move all around it in your search for the solution to the problems it poses — for the world is movement, and you cannot be stationary in your attitude toward something that is moving. Sometimes you light upon the picture in seconds; it might also require hours or days. But there is no standard plan, no pattern from which to work.

Henri Cartier-Bresson
Photography has not changed since its origin except in its technical aspects, which for me are not important.

Henri Cartier-Bresson
To take photographs means to recognize - simultaneously and within a fraction of a second - both the fact itself and the rigorous organization of visually perceived forms that give it meaning. It is putting one's head, one's eye and one's heart on the same axis.

Henri Cartier-Bresson
For me, the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity.

Henri Cartier-Bresson