Henri Cartier-Bresson. China 1948-1949, 1958.
Delpire| N° d'inventaire | 22151 |
| Format | 24.5 x 29.5 |
| Détails | 288 p., hardcover. |
| Publication | Paris, 2019 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9791095821168 |
Drawing on the extensive archives of the HCB Foundation, this book retraces and analyzes one of the key moments in Henri Cartier-Bresson's career: his stay in China from December 1948 to September 1949. Following a commission from Life magazine, and shortly after the creation of the Magnum cooperative agency, HCB made this trip at the time of the transition between the nationalist regime of Chiang Kai-shek and the communist regime of Mao Zedong. More than just so-called "reportage" photographs, the resulting images, many of which have remained among his most famous, bear witness to significant events, social circumstances, and ways of life that were about to disappear, and above all, they capture attention for their empathetic and poetic qualities. Marked by the country and its culture, as well as by the political changes of the time, HCB returned to China in 1958 and observed the effects of the change of regime. Expanding on the book's subject, this second stay complements the first, both in resonance and contrast. The book, whose photographic selection was produced in close collaboration with the HCB Foundation by the authors, Michel Frizot and Ying-lung Su, analyzes and organizes a previously unpublished photographic, documentary, and historical corpus of exceptional scope, through which we gain access to the practice, intentions, and audacity of a major figure in photography. At the time and in the circumstances that would make him a reference and celebrity in photojournalism.
Drawing on the extensive archives of the HCB Foundation, this book retraces and analyzes one of the key moments in Henri Cartier-Bresson's career: his stay in China from December 1948 to September 1949. Following a commission from Life magazine, and shortly after the creation of the Magnum cooperative agency, HCB made this trip at the time of the transition between the nationalist regime of Chiang Kai-shek and the communist regime of Mao Zedong. More than just so-called "reportage" photographs, the resulting images, many of which have remained among his most famous, bear witness to significant events, social circumstances, and ways of life that were about to disappear, and above all, they capture attention for their empathetic and poetic qualities. Marked by the country and its culture, as well as by the political changes of the time, HCB returned to China in 1958 and observed the effects of the change of regime. Expanding on the book's subject, this second stay complements the first, both in resonance and contrast. The book, whose photographic selection was produced in close collaboration with the HCB Foundation by the authors, Michel Frizot and Ying-lung Su, analyzes and organizes a previously unpublished photographic, documentary, and historical corpus of exceptional scope, through which we gain access to the practice, intentions, and audacity of a major figure in photography. At the time and in the circumstances that would make him a reference and celebrity in photojournalism.