In 1946, the Museum of Modern Art decided to mount a retrospective of photographs by the recently deceased Henri Cartier-Bresson, said Michael Kimmelman in The New York Times. Only it turned out he wasn't dead. Despite having been captured by the Nazis at the start of the war, 'œhe turned up alive, having escaped from prison camp (three times) and served with the Resistance.' Cartier-Bresson hopped a ship for New York with a single scrapbook in hand, which 'œsummed up what he considered his best work to date, making it a sort of autobiography.' The scrapbook's images then became the basis of an expanded MoMA show, which helped burnish his reputation at the top of his field. But the scrapbook itself has never been seen in public. Now the International Center of Photography has carefully restored it.
Even in his 20s, when the first of these pictures were taken, Cartier-Bresson was 'œalready highly accomplished,' said James Gardner in the New York Post. He could capture powerful journalistic images, such as that of a freed French woman confronting her collaborationist neighbor following the liberation of Paris. Yet he was also capable of framing images of extraordinary formal complexity. In a 1933 Madrid street scene, for instance, 'œhis depiction of faces against a white wall is as masterfully composed as a painting by Mondrian or Klee.' Cartier-Bresson's photographs often seem to tread a middle ground between reportage and high art. 'œPerhaps the best description of his work is that he is an artistic journalist who never allows the immediacy of the event to get the better of his eye.'
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