Michel Frizot

Photo Trouvee brings together 285 anonymous 'amateur' photographs, which were discovered and collected over a period of over twenty years in flea markets and antique shops. They are taken from the private collections of Michel Frizot, one of the most highly respected photohistorians in France and internationally, and his colleague Cedric de Veigy, professor of photography and film. These images once belonged to hundreds of now anonymous men and women, both young and old, city- and country-dwellers. They show family reunions and individual portraits, holiday scenes and urban landscapes, still lives and everyday objects. Seen together, they form what the authors call "an anthropology of the ordinary". But however ordinary their subjects might be, the photographs themselves are certainly never mundane. Collections of 'amateur' photographs often display the images as being kitsch or funny, here the approach is very different. The images have been selected as much for the atmosphere and universal feelings of humanity that they engender as for their intrinsic quality as photographs, in fact, they often provoke more questions in the viewer than they answer. As photographs portraying scenes of everyday life, originating both from the past and nearer to the present, they conjure up familiar images and emotions in the reader, be it of a place, a person, a gesture, or simply an atmosphere. The images are presented in 18 carefully edited sections of 13, 15 or 17 images, with each picture displayed on a single page. Neither chronological nor thematic in arrangement, the images have been placed according to their composition, their tone, and the rhythm and narrative dimension of the photographs. Frizot and de Veigy introduce this collection of photographs in their own words, providing a concise explanation of their aims when collecting and curating this intimate and intensely atmospheric body of work.

In December 1948, Henri Cartier-Bresson travelled to China at the request of Life magazine. He stayed for ten months and captured some of the most spectacular moments in China's history: he photographed Beijing in 'the last days of the Kuomintang', and then headed back to Shanghai, where he recorded the new regime's takeover. Moreover, in 1958, Henri Cartier-Bresson was one of the first Western photographers to go back to China to explore the changes that had occurred over the preceding decade. The 'picture stories' he sent to Magnum and Life on a regular basis played a key role in Westerners' understanding of Chinese political events. Many of these images are among the most significant photographs in Cartier-Bresson's oeuvre; his empathy with the populace and sense of responsibility as a witness making them an important part of his legacy. Henri Cartier-Bresson in China allows these photographs to be re-examined along with all of the documents that were preserved: the photographer's captions and comments, contact sheets and abundant correspondence, as well as the published versions that appeared in both American and European magazines. A welcome addition to any photography lover's bookshelf, this is an exciting new volume on one of the 20th century's most important photographers.