Henri Cartier-Bresson Quotes
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To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which give that event its proper expression. And this organization, this precision, will always escape you, if you do not appreciate what a picture is, if you do not understand that the composition, the logic, the equilibrium of the surfaces and values are the only ways of giving meaning to all that is continuously appearing and vanishing before our very eyes.
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Photography appears to be an easy activity; in fact it is a varied and ambiguous process in which the only common denominator among its practitioners is in the instrument.
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The camera is for us a tool, not a pretty mechanical toy ... people think far too much about techniques and not enough about seeing.
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The Photography is a chopper which in the eternity seizes the moment which dazzled it.
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Freedom for me is a strict frame, and inside that frame are all the variations possible.
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I love painting. As far as photography is concerned, I understand nothing.
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Photography is a way of shouting, of freeing oneself, not of proving or asserting one's own originality. It's a way of life.
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For the world is movement, and you cannot be stationary in your attitude toward something that is moving.
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I am a pack of nerves while waiting for the moment, and this feeling grows and grows and grows and then it explodes, it is a physical joy, a dance, space and time united. Yes, yes, yes, yes!
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Photographers deal in things which are continuously vanishing.
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I am a visual man. I watch, watch, watch. I understand things through my eyes.
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Photographier: c'est mettre sur la meme ligne de mire la tete, l'oeil et le coeur.
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The adventurer in me felt obliged to testify with a quicker instrument than a brush to the scars of the world.
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Reality offers us such wealth that we must cut some of it out on the spot, simplify. The question is, do we always cut out what we should?
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And no photographs taken with the aid of flashlight either, if only out of respect of the actual light—even when there isn't any of it.
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I suddenly understood that photography can fix eternity in a moment. It is the only photo that influenced me. There is such intensity in this image, such spontaneity, such joie de vivre, such miraculousness, that even today it still bowls me over.
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Photography has not changed since its origin except in its technical aspects, which for me are not important.
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The picture is good or not from the moment it was caught in the camera.
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Memory is very important, the memory of each photo taken, flowing at the same speed as the event.
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Human faces are such a world!
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One eye of the photographer looks wide open through the viewfinder, the other, the closed looks into his own soul.
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As photojournalists, we supply information to a world that is overwhelmed with preoccupations and full of people who need the company of images....We pass judgement on what we see, and this involves an enormous responsibility.
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...it is seldom indeed that a composition which was poor when the picture was taken can be improved by reshaping it in the dark room.
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In order to give meaning to the world, one has to feel oneself involved in what he frames. This attitude requires concentration, a discipline of mind, sensitivity, and a sense of geometry.
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I suddenly understood that a photograph could fix eternity in an instant.
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Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.
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A photographer is part pick-pocket and part tightrope dancer.
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It seems dangerous to be a portrait artist who does commissions for clients because everyone wants to be flattered, so they pose in such a way that there's nothing left of truth.
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We must respect the atmosphere which surrounds the human being
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As far as I am concerned, taking photographs is a means of understanding which cannot be separated from other means of visual expression. It is a way of shouting, of freeing oneself, not of proving or asserting one's own originality. It is a way of life.
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Henri Cartier-Bresson

- Born: August 22, 1908
- Died: August 3, 2004
- Occupation: Photographer