Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Decisive Moment
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Photography & Video
Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Decisive Moment Details
Review Cartier-Bresson captured people in a flash in a private or telling moment, rather than how they might formally present themselves, and in the process offered an essential truth about the human condition. (Marjorie Backman Afterimage)Cartier-Bresson’s concept of the “decisive moment” ― a split second that reveals the larger truth of a situation ― shaped modern street photography and set the stage for hundreds of photojournalists to bring the world into living rooms through magazines. (James Estrin The New York Times Online)A decisively beautiful object that belongs in the library of anyone who cares about photography... From editing and sequencing to packaging, it’s a masterpiece. (Pat Padua Spectrum Culture)Reprinted to the exact specification of the original, including Henri Matisse’s collage cover design, Steidl’s care and craftsmanship is astounding. At 11.5” by 15”, it’s actually too large for my bookshelf. The spreads are sized according to the dimensions of the framelines of Cartier-Bresson’s beloved Leica camera, allowing for a single large image, two vertical images, or four smaller horizontal images to fit on each spread. The sequencing is seamless and affecting–it is one of the most immersive experiences I have ever had with a book. The book’s physical presence and high image quality demands not only respect for the work inside, but for it to be treated as a work of art in and of itself. (Evan Paul Laudenslager theartblog.org)It's immediately obvious that The Decisive Moment is a hedonistic delight, at least if your idea of hedonism is flexible enough to extend to the tactile and visual pleasure of a photography book. (Gary Cockburn One Thousand Words)Diligently reproduced to the finest detail, Steidl seems to have resisted the urge to over embellish the new edition with unnecessary addendums. Cartier-Bresson likely would have dismissed an elaborate reconstruction of his book as crass and egregious. The Decisive Moment is about the aesthetics of coincidence, and the faith to follow intuition. Like every brilliant unexpected moment, things can never be truly recreated, but only faithfully retold. (Krystal Grow Wired)With the winter months slowly waning away, what better time is there to grab a good book, a hot beverage, and lounge in bed on a chilly and blustery evening? Luckily for you, we went ahead and picked the most enticing coffee table books that will be released this month, which can be viewed in the slideshow above. (Devon Ivie Interview)More than ten years after his passing, the renowned street and social documentary photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson―who so famously coined the term “the decisive moment,” or the second when all of the compositional elements of a scene come into harmony―continues to charm, fascinate and inspire photographers worldwide. The Decisive Moment (Steidl), Cartier-Bresson’s book that was first published in 1952 by Simon and Schuster, is reentering the market. This latest edition, which will also be covered in Matisse cutouts like the original, highlights the photographer’s revered early work, and it will come with a booklet of an essay on the history of The Decisive Moment by Clément Chéroux, the Centre Pompidou curator. (Libby Peterson Rangefinder)Henri Cartier-Bresson’s iconic photography book, “The Decisive Moment,” has been republished, 62 years after the highly influential collection of his early work was first released. (Aurelien Breeden The New York Times Arts Beat)The Decisive Moment has finally been republished. Sixty-two years on, it still carries the weight of its initial importance – even if the notion of the decisive moment no longer holds sway as it once did; staged photography, conceptual strategies and digitally manipulated images have all but rendered it old-fashioned except to purists, photojournalists and street photographers. (Sean O'Hagan The Guardian) Read more
Reviews
I read these reviews lamenting the horrible print quality while waiting for me pre-ordered copy to be delivered and expected to be terribly disappointed. They were so negative I was ready to return the book without opening it. Reviewers claim that the photos look like copies of copies and that HCB never would have let his work be presented this way. Because of these reviews, I though the Steidl facsimile of the original must have been blundered somehow. It was only at my fiancées insistence that I even bothered unwrapping the book to take a look at it (she knew how excited I was about the book coming out and even offered to pay for it if I didn't like the edition).I just took my copy out of the shrink wrap, and couldn't be more pleased. I am Thrilled with this book.Here is some background that may be helpful. Several months ago, when I heard this book was being reprinted, I decided to see if my university's interlibrary loan service could track down a copy is the rare, valuable, original for me to borrow, to see if I wanted to buy the Steidl edition when released. I figured it was a longshot since a book this rare and valuable is risky to lend out. But the library was able to get it for me and I can tell you that Steidl did a PERFECT job reproducing it. It is literally as though you are holding a brand new copy of the original in your hands (except better, because the photos haven't faded over 50 years and had hundreds of students' hands on the pages- they look fresh as they should).So I have to admit, I'm really baffled by the negative reviews, especially one that claims to have seen the original. If people think the photos look like copies of copies, well, that's what you would have thought of the original too. Yeah, they're not hyperglossy, but neither was the original book. End of story. It's EXACTLY what the version of the original edition I had looked like (but, again, only better: because it's new, not missing the dust jacket, and comes in a nice slipcase).I can tell you as someone serious about photography books ( and ones from Steidl as well: I've spend lots of $ on Steidl's gorgeous editions of William Eggleston's work) and street photography itself, you should not let these negative reviews of the print quality dissuade you.The content, of course, speaks for itself: the book is an absolute masterpiece.So I would really advise you just see for yourself what you think. You may be disappointed if you think they will look like digital photos. But they are not now, and they never were. What they are is faithful to HCB's vision for the book.
