Henri Cartier-Bresson passed away

[Estelle]

It was announced yesterday that the famous photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson passed away on August 2.

He had become a photographer in the 1930s (after some paintings and drawings)

and had founded the agency "Magnum" in 1947 with three other photographers.

The logo for Balanchine 100 was inspired by a famous photograph by him. Anecdotically, his first wife, Ratna (or Retna) Mohini, was an Indonesian dancer, and Lincoln Kirstein had written some of the texts of the book "The photographs of Henri Cartier-Bresson" in 1947.

Some biographies or obituaries in French:

http://www.liberation.fr/page.php?Article=228546

http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-...6-374607,0.html

http://www.courrierinternational.com/artic...culture&bloc=01

and in English:

http://photography.about.com/library/weekly/aa082399a.htm

http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/cb/index-bio.htm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/cartierbres...1276090,00.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/cartierbres...1276468,00.html

A few portraits by him:

http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/cb/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style...allery/bresson/

And some other photographs:

http://www.photology.com/bresson/

[Farrell Fan]

Thank you for the wonderful links, Estelle.

Personally, I felt the distortion of the photograph for the Balanchine 100 logo was disrespectful of both Mr. B and Cartier-Bresson, two of the great artistic geniuses of the 20th century. Fortunately, a blowup of the actual photo was lowered on opening night, on Balanchine's birthday, and at the SAB workshop, to the cheers and applause of dancers and audience.

[charlieloki]

i agree with farrell fan

the cartier-bresson "tendu" photograph is an absolute masterpiece

it was desecrated, probably by some dance-ignorant marketing crew

much of the celebration was disrepectful of balanchine

for instance, martins' very tedious swan lake was done instead of balanchine's one-act version - which is a masterpiece and absolutely should have been seen

probably, we could not have expected more, considering who is and has been in charge of the balanchine legacy for all these years

however, no matter which balanchine pieces are done, or who dances in them, the sheer genius of the choreography speaks for itself

martins' work is trivial and forgettable by comparison - he cannot overcome his own insignificant legacy

a very glorious tribute was the museum of television and radio's months-long presentation of various balanchine works which were televised mostly in the 60's and 70's - absolutely stunning in a smallish theater on a big but not too-big screen

each of the dozen or so compilations was presented daily for one week

i attended them over and over again, week after week, and noticed that some other people were doing the same thing

that's where i finally said my personal goodbye to the master

[Leigh Witchel]

I was looking at a few of the Cartier-Bresson links up (thank you Estelle) - are there more which show dance as the subject?

[Naoko S]

Thanks Estelle for bringing this subject up. At the sad news I checked all the major English quality newspapers, and it was actually The Guardian who spared more space and respects to the great artist-photographer (his big portrait on the front page, etc). The Independent also dedicated a good article together with some of his well-known pictures. I've been trying but denied access to the website for Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson. It may be worth trying for more info.: www.henricartierbresson.org