Talk about Henri Cartier-Bresson Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Talk about Henri Cartier-Bresson - Essay Example This biography tries to make a journey through his life that was all about making a history of photography with outstanding moments of achievements from the rarest events in the chronicle of world politics and his revolutionary vision in the future of photojournalism. Early life Henri Cartier-Bresson was the first of the five children born to a rather wealthy family based on textile manufacturing industry on August 22, 1908 in Chanteloup-en-Brie in France (Encyclopedia of World Biography). His hometown and the support of his family provided him with the facilities required for his choosing the desired path; and the young Henri embraced the art of sketching at every free minute-probably as a foundation for his development as a photographer later. Right from his childhood, Cartier-Bresson has a fascination for handling snapshot cameras and cherished a secret love for being a photographer despite his father’s ambition to make him his successor in the family business. One cannot b lame Henri for his passion for the art of drawing because his father himself had a fine hand to hold the brush socked in colors at leisure. Cartier-Bresson’s life took a blissful turn when he realized that his attempts on music lessons were becoming futile-exactly when he compensated his loss at music learning by switching to painting as a subject of study under the guidance of his uncle who taught Henri until he died in World War I (Encyclopedia of World Biography). His real professionalism started in 1927 when he explored the wider spectrum of visual arts exposed by many great artists of that time. He learned the art of blending French classical painting with contemporary and modern art models and adopted the ambitious approach of the great sculptor and cubist painter Andre Lhote, whom Henri later held as his educator and considered excellence in sculpture designs as photography of imagination. Cartier-Bresson’s self-motivated enthusiasm to experiment his own styles in art modeling was not an easy bit for Lhote, who had always focused on the theoretical perfection of every artist. Thus an eventual restlessness in Cartier-Bresson’s self-styled interior might have caused the making of a completely innovative cameraman, who became the apt personality to be called ‘the father of modern photography’ in due course. Entry into Active Photography The transformation of a conservative businessman’s son to a matchless photographer of the world history was not something that happened overnight. The two-year study on painting and the experimental approach had a little break from Cartier-Bresson’s life when he was compelled to move out of Paris in 1931 when he went Africa (Henri Cartier-Bresson Facts). The new land of wild beauty and the delightful taste of a hunter’s hungry eyes did not last long-Henri realized that the beasts had beauty to be captured. In fact his African expedition nurtured his early skills in adve nturous photography by which he learned the art of framing the exquisiteness of his surroundings. For this regard, he adopted a 35mm Leica and created magical effects on photo shoot with spectacular accuracy and clarity. At such an early time itself Cartier-Bresson was well equipped with lenses matching the contexts with cameras fit enough to do