Henri Cartier Bresson photographed Gandhi, just days before he was shot.
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| Last smiles of Mahatma Gandhi caught by Cartier Bresson |
But HOW did he manage to be there at the right time?
Not only that, he was present at Chairman Mao's revolution, the Cuban missile attack, King George V1's coronation... like a Mercury with wings, he seemed to be there. Was this simply chance?
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| Bull's eye: 1933 in Spain, Cartier Bresson captures a fleeting glint |
How did he hit bull's eye at every shot?
In fact it was Carl Jung who said that 'Accidents happen to the prepared mind' and Bresson's mind was very well prepared.
He began photography as a child, at 14 years in 1922. He worked hard on painting too, interested in the composition. In his younger years he travelled around southern France, Spain and Africa, learning to open his eyes to the wonders of African life: people, places, happenings (and loathing colonialism)
Preparations
Through Lhote's teachings, he became aware of the 'Golden Rule' and Pythagorean theorem, using this rule to frame his photos: even sometimes having a wall at a right angle as the framing. His background was picked for its texture, geometric structure, its images or signs. Then he waited, this frame like a trap, and he the hunter, for whatever life would send into it, calling this meeting of chance and order an 'instant coalition' This system gave his photos a simultaneous feeling of movement and rest.
He came across the world of André Breton and the surrealist artists and their fascination with the unconscious. This circumstantial magic added to his photos, making him unleash a person's unconscious by making a kind of montage between the idea in his frame and the chance event caused by intuitive analogy. His photos became layered like dada collages, with symbols and life happenings clashing in a moment to trigger the brain to make a connection.
Certain Themes
Sleeping people and veiled eroticism came from this period, such as this sleeping boy and the wall which triggers a sense of his internal world.
He also became interested in the narrative structure of film, working with Jean Renoir on Maupassant's 'A day in the country' (in which he even performs as a saucy priest)
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| Cartier Bresson was camera assistant for this masterpiece of a film |
But when war broke out, he joined the communist struggle and was imprisoned for over three years, before filming transit camps after the war.
Work as a reporter for Magnum
His reportage work for Magnum caused him to be present at epic moments in history, meeting Gandhi just days before he was shot and filming his cremation.
By this time in his life, he was so conscious of the synchronicity of life, the preparation both inner and outer had trained him to heed his intuitive forces, picking up his leads for his camera to follow. His Mercury like tread, light dancing feet, his camera at the read, set to shoot with the Cupid accuracy of his miraculous images.
It is his appreciation of inner forces, ancients structures and the trusting of his hugely individual and unique way of art, that he followed a trail and left a trail of the magical moments captured, reminding us of a wonderful world and theses instances in infinity that make life so awesome.
Henri Cartier Bresson is currently being exhibited at the Pompidou Centre in Paris
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