Henri Cartier-Bresson: the Modern Century November 2, 2010

An innovative artist, trailblazing photojournalist, and quintessential world traveler, Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004) ranks among the most accomplished and original figures in the history of photography. His inventive images of the early 1930s helped define the creative potential of the medium, and his uncanny ability to capture life on the run made his work synonymous with "the decisive moment" -- the title of his first major book. He dispatched urgent visual reportage from India and Indonesia at the time of independence, China during its revolution, the Soviet Union after Stalin's death, the United States during the postwar boom, and Europe as its old cultures confronted modern realities. This major retrospective, the first in the United States in three decades, offers a fresh look at Cartier-Bresson's entire career. It reveals him as one of the great portraitists of the 20th century and one of its keenest observers of the global theater of human affairs.