Henri Cartier-Bresson - Hyères, France, 1932

Henri Cartier-Bresson. Hyères, France, 1932.

In Hyères, France, Henri Cartier-Bresson captured the instant when an ever-moving image—in this case, a bicyclist streaking by an iron railing—achieves a timeless harmony of form, expression, and content.

'Copyright Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos' on the back of the image.

Total dimensions: 35,3 x 27,4 cm on semi-gloss paper.

Fine condition (with small imperfections).

Cartier-Bresson took this photograph in 1932 while on holiday in Hyères in the French Côte d’Azure region. During a walk around the town, Cartier-Bresson positioned himself at the top of the staircase with his equipment and waited for activity to take place that he could capture. Hyéres, France can be considered in relation to the notion of the ‘fixed-explosive’, a concept that the curator Clément Chéroux describes as:

"the state of something simultaneously in motion and at rest … Cartier-Bresson loved the movement that set lines in motion and energised compositions. He often introduced mobile subjects into his compositions … By pressing the shutter release on his Leica, he stopped the movement, but at the same time he was able to produce images that, through their framing, composition and rhythm, still preserved the dynamism of the action. According to the principle of dialectic synthesis, they are therefore at one and the same time in motion and at rest: fixed-explosive."

One of the most influential photographers of the 20th century along with other photographers of his time such as: Man Ray, Ansel Adams, Robert Capa, Elliott Erwitt, Walter Evans, Philippe Halsman, Diane Arbus, Eve Arnold, Robert Doisneau, Josef Sudek, Robert Mapplethorpe, Steve McCurry, Ai Weiwei, among many others.