577 - Henri Cartier-Bresson* (Chanteloup-en-Brie 1908 - 2004 Céreste)

Henri Cartier-Bresson* (Chanteloup-en-Brie 1908 - 2004 Céreste) Fire Festival, Burma, 1948/1949 vintage gelatin silver print 24 x 15,8 cm verso photographer’s stamp and MAGNUM stamp, as well as dated 8.12.49 SCHÄTZPREIS / ESTIMATE € 800 - 1600 STARTPREIS / STARTING PRICE € 800 Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004) was a French photographer and co-founder of Magnum Photos who profoundly shaped modern reportage and street photography. After training in painting, he turned to photography in the late 1920s; early on, he worked with a Leica, whose compact design enabled him to observe everyday life directly and unobtrusively. His travels across Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas resulted in an extensive body of work spanning reportage, portraiture, and social documentation. Cartier-Bresson viewed photography as the capturing of a fleeting moment in which geometry, movement, and content coalesce into a unified composition. His early engagement with film—including work within Jean Renoir’s circle—also influenced his perception of movement, rhythm, and narrative image sequencing. Cartier-Bresson’s visual language belongs to the international context of modern reportage photography and can be linked, in particular, to Martin Munkácsi and Manuel Álvarez Bravo. Munkácsi’s dynamic shots of people in motion and his unusual perspectives were key influences on the development of the modern snapshot, while Álvarez Bravo developed a distinctive, poetic form of Mexican documentary and avant-garde photography. Together with the Leica, the concept of the "decisive moment," and humanist reportage, these approaches form central reference points for Cartier-Bresson’s work. His combination of spontaneous observation, rigorous composition, and narrative condensation established him as a key figure in 20th-century international photography. PLEASE NOTE: The purchase price consists of the highest bid plus the buyer's premium, sales tax and, if applicable, the fee of artists resale rights and platform fee. In the case of normal taxation (marked ° at the estimate), a premium of 24% is added to the highest bid. The mandatory sales tax is added to the sum of the highest bid, the buyer's premium and platform fee. This amounts to 13% for paintings, drawings, graphic works and sculptures and 20% for photographs and all other items. The buyer's premium amounts to 28% in case of differential taxation. The sales tax is included in the differential taxation.