Henri Cartier-Bresson and the Artless Art (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Montier's doctoral thesis makes up the text of this important book, which is part biography, part catalog, and part critical explication. The text, supplemented with images of Cartier-Bresson's nonphotographic work, shows the varied sides of the photographer. But we don't really need to see the paintings and drawings of Cartier-Bresson. Thankfully, Montier keeps his primary interest on the delightful and usually surprising moments that Cartier-Bresson captures. What seems like a chaotic cluster of disparate people engaged in various activities is an instant when all this mayhem came into the viewfinder for Cartier-Bresson. The "Artless Art" of the title is the capturing of reality, honoring it, giving us long moments to enjoy it, and coming away thinking that the instant recorded was full of aesthetic delight. Recommended for general collections.?David Bryant, New Canaan P.L., Ct.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

So perfectly do Cartier-Bresson's eloquently trenchant photographs capture the paradoxes and stark, unexpected beauty of life in this convulsive century, many have attained the status of icons, but these oft-reproduced treasures represent only a fraction of his vast and varied oeuvre. Not only have many of his photographs gone unpublished, but few aspects of his determinedly independent life have been sensitively analyzed. Montier corrects both of these deficiencies with the help of Cartier-Bresson himself, a partnership that infuses this handsome volume with a spirit of discovery and celebration. The photographs themselves are, of course, quietly magnificent, and many--especially those taken in Japan, India, Iraq, and Mexico in the 1950s and 1960s, powerful compositions of people scraping sustenance and joy from ancient, arid, and comfortless lands--reveal a fresh facet of Cartier-Bresson's art and compassion. Montier articulates the power of these images by combining biography with knowledgeable insights into Cartier-Bresson's inspirations, including his brilliant channeling of Zen Buddhist thought into a liberating aesthetic of photography. Donna Seaman

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Bulfinch; 1ST edition (November 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0821222856
• ISBN-13: 978-0821222850
• Product Dimensions: 13.5 x 9.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #887,933 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good concept, too many words, March 8, 2002

By	Branislav Jacko (Piestany Slovakia) - See all my reviews

To put it short: half of the book is text. Out of 290 bw pictures 41 are drawings of H.C-B., some are photographs of other authors, some more are portraits relevant to people mentioned in text. I agree with other reviewers - choice is very good. The concept of the book and the important points are well chosen, too, but it' s filled with too many words.

When you accept this book as large treatise on H.C.-B., photography and art itself - that means dominantly text, illustrated specifically with his photographs - you can learn a lot of interesting things (if you're patient enough to read it all through). But after a while you can find yourselves (like me) somehow distracted from the photographs. Though an expert in H.C.- B. life and work, J.P.Montier seems to me as he doesn't possess one crucial ability of his subject - the gift to pick up instant out of plenty. So I think, I would like more to let speak pictures for themselves with some relevant facts and quotations, revealing background. After all, Henri Cartier-Bresson is a photographer, isn't he? My personal wish is to see contact copies of film rolls, at least parts from which were the famous pictures chosen - it could tell us more about the field work of this Master of the Right Moment.

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Lyrical Moment, February 22, 2000

By A Customer

This is one of the greatest published collections of the spectrum of CB's work -- it includes portraits, street photography, surrealist images, travel, etc. The pictures are beautiful. The text, which really needed to be edited more carefully, is nonetheless insightful. For anyone who wants to learn to make better pictures, buy this book, analyze the pictures and use what you learn.

19 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Homage to HCB, August 28, 2001

By	Michael Bond (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

First, the image selection (and according to the book it's HCB himself who did it) and presentation is probably the best for any collection of HCB photographs. Our perception is affected qualitatively by the size, and many of the same images printed full page simply lose in comparison even without considering the discussion and examples of visual reading the author of the thesis/book provides. Secondly, the text, while academic, is truly useful because it introduces a lot of background and thinking around photography as artistic phenomenon - therefore, if not read passively, and then likely to cause the kind of irritation a previous German reviewer displayed, but as a means to start your own thinking processes, it succeeds excellently. (Or, as someone noting the length of the my previous sentence could decide, likes attract ..;o)).. ) Possibly one of the best books around if you are an active photographer intrested in the aesthetics of the "seen" kind of photography - i.e. photography that aims to hunt out instances of artistic order chaotic Life creates from time to time - as contrasted to the "created" or conceptual approach, or if you are interested in the history of the art/medium and want to make sense of its roots and of its arguably the most brilliant practitioner in the XX century. Warning for USA readers: European thought. Antithesis of the "Dummies" books. Thinking required.