Clément Chéroux

This lavishly illustrated monograph published to accompany Frances first major retrospective since the photographers death in 2004 traces Cartier-Bressons development as a photographer, activist, journalist and artist. In addition to some of Cartier-Bressons best-known photographs, included here are many seldom seen or unpublished images and some rarities in colour as well as black-and-white. From his earliest photographs in Paris in the 1920s and Africa in the 1930s, Cartier-Bressons capacity to conjure coherence and harmony out of a chaotic world appears effortless and innate a deep-centred attitude rather than a merely learned technique. His observations of the effects of poverty and revolution around the world led directly to his pioneering photojournalism and to his co-founding of Magnum Photos. He became renowned for his penetrating portraits of the most prominent figures of his time, becoming, in the words of his biographer Pierre Assouline, the eye of the century.

With this publication Aperture presents an elegantly updated and refreshed edition of the classic Henri Cartier-Bresson volume in the Aperture Masters of Photography series. With an introduction by notable curator Clément Chéroux, this edition includes new, image-by-image commentary and a chronology of this influential and iconic artist's life. Initially presented as the History of Photography series in 1976, the first volume of the Masters of Photography series featured Cartier-Bresson and was edited by legendary French publisher Robert Delpire, who cofounded the series with Aperture's own Michael Hoffman. This redesigned and expanded version honors the selection of images from the original series, which Cartier-Bresson himself created with Delpire, encapsulating the spontaneity and intuition for which this legendary photographer is so celebrated.