It's hard to imagine what it would be like to experience a life like Henri Cartier-Bresson. What would it be like to be the original photojournalist, covering King Henry VI's coronation and Ghandi's funeral; China's fall to communism and Indonesia's rise from Dutch control; taking portraits of Marilyn Monroe and Martin Luther King Jr? As a journalism major and a bit of a photography nut, photojournalism was a dream job of mine at one point. That profession wouldn't even exist if it weren't for Cartier-Bresson.
In a sense, I adamantly feel that photojournalism is the greatest style of photography there is. Photojournalists capture real life--no perfect models, no makeup or styling, no special effects or equipment--just them, the subject, and the camera. All those things are able to so easily ruin what a photograph should truly be: a slice of time (real time) frozen forever. With a journalistic approach, it's ethically impossible to elaborate
a photo,
life,
truth.
Henri understood the power of photography, saying that "photography could fix eternity in an instant." I believe this is essentially why he gave it up. Shortly after his divorce from his wife of 30 years, he retired from his photography career and returned to drawing and painting. I think he found life too bleak and photography too honest. In drawing and painting, the artist is able to mould reality any way they desire. In photography, the moment is captured forever, with no way to alter it.
"The simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as the precise organization of forms which gives that event its proper expression... . In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject. The little human detail can become a leitmotif."
—Henri Cartier-Bresson
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