Photo-assignment Suggestions by Henri Cartier-Bresson

From the Images of Man Audiovisual Series, The Decisive Moment: Henri Cartier-Bresson 1973

The most difficult thing for me is a portrait. It’s a question mark you put on somebody. Trying to say, “Who is it? What does it amount to? What is the significance of that face?” The difference between a portrait and a snapshot is that in the portrait, the person has agreed to be photographed.
I like to take pictures of people in their environment, the animal in it habitat. it is fascinating coming into people’s homes, looking at them. But you have to be like a cat. Not disturb. On tiptoes, always on tiptoes. It’s like a biologist and his microscope. When you study the thing, it doesn’t react the same way as when it is not being studied. And you have to try and put your camera between the skin of a person and his shirt, which is not an easy thing.

Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004) was one of the most influential, well-known, and beloved figures in the history of photography. His inventive work in the early 1930’s helped define more than photography and photojournalism, particularly through the idea of “The Decisive Moment”. He was also was one of the founders of the Magnum Photos Agency. Cartier-Bresson covered many of the biggest events of the twentieth century, including World War II, China during the revolution, the Soviet Union after Stalin’s death, and the United States in the postwar boom.