“To photograph – according to Henri Cartier-Bresson – means placing on the same line of sight your head, your eye and your heart. Photography is a way of life”.
Henri Cartier-Bresson is one of the most prestigious founders and outstanding artists of 20th-century photography. His photographs stand as the testament of the greatest cultural and political figures, venues and events of the past fifty years. The forthcoming Henri Cartier-Bresson Retrospective at the Ludwig Museum Budapest – Museum of Contemporary Art (March 21–May 26, 2002) is organised in collaboration with the French Institute of Budapest, the Magnum Photos Agency, the 22nd Spring Festival, and the Month of Photography in Budapest. This is the first exhaustive exhibition of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s art in Hungary, comprising of 155 photographs. This exhibition has been curated by Robert Delpire.
1908 born on August 22 in Chanteloup-en-Seine et Marne 1927 Studies painting with André Lhote in Paris and keeps contact with the Surrealists circles 1929 Studies painting and literature at Cambridge 1931 Begins to photograph, and travels the world (India, China, the Soviet Union, Mexico) 1932 First exhibition of photographs in New York and settles in Mexico Works as the second assistant of the filmmaker Jean Renoir until 1939 1940–43 Prisoner of war (Baden-Württemberg) 1943 Returns to photography (artists’ portraits and documentary photos) 1946 Returns to the United States 1947 Establishes Magnum Photos Agency with Robert Capa and David Seymour 1974 Abandons photography, entirely devoted to drawing
(with MAGNUM and the French Institute, withim the framework of the Budapest Spring Festival)