Henri Cartier Bresson Foundation — Attraction in Paris

Visit to the Cartier-Bresson Exhibition in Turin

Not everyone can be a good photographer, can they? And Henri Cartier-Bresson, known as “the eye of the century,” is an exceptional one. Capturing human life, understanding it in order to draw reflections from it, is of great importance. The photographs in the exhibition, taken with his inseparable Leica between 1930 and 1970, bear witness to his passion for Italy. His photos are snapshots of time, most often in black and white. “The first impression is often the best,” he says.

What I appreciate in his photographs is the tradition, the culture, and the everyday life of people. Some moments from the “little history” are presented to us—moments that seem trivial but in reality convey a great deal. Just like all forms of art, they carry a certain depth. The photographs sometimes hold a sense of nostalgia but also beauty.

I also enjoy, in some candid shots, the classic clothing of Italian men and women, such as woolen grey coats. Clothing, too, is a marker of a culture that shaped them.

In the end, I thought to myself that I would like, like Henri Cartier-Bresson, to master new technologies with excellence and creativity, and to have, on my humble level, that same power to transmit and...

I’ve been a fan of HCB for many years and his work has been incredibly influential on mine. So it was a treat to visit. It’s a small intimate space with changing exhibits. However, I was not impressed with the quality of the prints. I’ve seen his original prints (at least those made under his direction in his later years and also that were signed) and the ones for the exhibit looked like they had been scanned from the original negatives and printed recently. These have a different look than the Agfa Brovira paper used in the 1970’s. There there also no early vintage prints (from the 1930’s etc) which would have been small and made primarily for book and magazine reproductions In addition these images are too clean and all imperfections had been removed as though in Photoshop (dust, scratches etc). Finally, some of these are also printed quite muddy in tones. Still a worthwhile stop for those interested in...

As a street photography lover I made a pilgrimage visit to this museum. I suppose this should be a must go place for any street photographers visiting Paris. However, the museum is a total scam. Only very few work of HCB is being displayed, and they are presented in a tiny room (about 250 square feet, equivalent to a large hotel room), and they call this a museum. The most famous work of HCB is not even shown. Almost half of the space of the “museum” is dedicated to the work of another photographer (who captured some random shots of the streets in Africa). Great. To justify for the high price I paid for visit, I circulated the room twice, hoping desperately to find a magical doorway that might perhaps lead to a larger show room. Last but not least, I found it ridiculous to see there is more of HCB’s work on the postcards sold in the Museum’s souvenir shop than the actual...