Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century

Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004) is one of the most influential and beloved figures in the history of photography. Released to accompany an exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, 'Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century' is the first major publication to make full use of the extensive holdings of the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris – including thousands of prints and a vast resource of documents relating to the photographer’s life and work. The heart of the book surveys Cartier-Bresson’s career through 300 photographs divided into twelve chapters.While many of his most famous pictures are included, a great number of images will be unfamiliar even to specialists. A wide-ranging essay by Peter Galassi, Chief Curator of Photography at the Museum, offers an entirely new understanding of Cartier-Bresson’s extraordinary career and its overlapping contexts of journalism and art. The extensive supporting material – featuring detailed chronologies of the photographer’s professional travels and his picture stories as they appeared in magazines – will revolutionize the study of Cartier-Bresson’s work.