I feel like I am watching the last episode of American Idol with my wife. Yes I admit I’ve caught an occasional glimpse of the show here and there and sort of know the drill. After the voting there are just three left standing on the stage.  So here we go … This, America, Is Your Top 3!  Do I sound like Ryan Seacrest or not?  No matter, but we are down to the final three of my My Favorite Top 10 Black and White Analog Photographers!! And who is my number 3. That’s right, it is none other than Henri Cartier-Bresson!!

Henri Cartier-Bresson or HCB, is in my humble opinion the greatest street photographer of them all! Think The Decisive Moment. Not just a book, but a concept and a way of photographic life!!!

Every Cartier-Bresson photograph tells a story and is special. And there are just so many of them! His hit rate was simply astounding! So much so that he was and is the photographer that has inspired and launched the careers and aspirations of thousands who would seek to emulate his greatness.  Her are just a few of my favorites out of the many: Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare, 1932; Children Playing in the Ruins, 1933; Madrid, 1933, 1933; and Rue Mouffetard, Paris, 1954.

And now for something to ponder from the preface of The Decisive Moment … “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” — Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Damn!

I could never afford the original copy of The Decisive Moment published in 1952, but when a beautiful new addition came out several years ago I jumped on it. It soon went out of print and became very expensive like the original. It proudly sits on my bookcase shelf alongside a number of other wonderful HCB monographs.

Take a look at what passes as mainstream street photography and then look at The Decisive Moment or any of HCB’s other work … he also made marvelous environmental portraits (Tete a Tete) and even did cityscape and landscape work (Henri Cartier-Bresson: City and Landscapes)!  There is no comparison.

Please, if you’re not familiar with Henri Cartier-Bresson’s splendid work, check it out ASAP!  You might well have your own decisive moment!

Happy Memorial Day and stay well,

Michael