# Henri Cartier-Bresson - Quotes: 18 - Author page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-cartier-bresson ## Books - [Henri Cartier-Bresson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-cartier-bresson/henri-cartier-bresson.md) — 18 quotes ## Recently added quotes > I hate looking at photography books or illustrated magazines. This is not because of contempt. I’d rather look at contact sheets: that is where you can sense the individual. p. 62 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-cartier-bresson/henri-cartier-bresson/i-hate-looking.md) > This book [Zen in the Art of Archery], by Herrigel, which I discovered a few years ago, seems to me fundamental to our profession as photographers. Matisse wrote similarly about drawing: set a discipline, make rigor a rule, forget oneself completely. And in photography the attitude must be the same: detach oneself, do not try to prove anything at all. My sense of freedom is the same: a frame that allows any variation. This is the basis of Zen Buddhism, the evidence: that you go in with great force and then you succeed in forgetting yourself. p. 65 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-cartier-bresson/henri-cartier-bresson/this-book-zen.md) > There are photographers who invent, others who discover. Personally, I am interested in discoveries, not for the trials or experiences but to capture life itself. I flee from the dangers of the anecdote and the picturesque, which are very easy and better than sensational, but quite as bad. To my mind, photography has the power to evoke, and must not simply document. We have to be abstract, just like nature. p. 44 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-cartier-bresson/henri-cartier-bresson/there-are-photographers.md) > If I am asked about the photographer’s role in our times, the power of the image and so on, I do not want to launch into explanations. I only know that people who know how to look are as rare as those who know how to listen. p. 45 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-cartier-bresson/henri-cartier-bresson/if-i-am-asked.md) > Photography has fulfilled my adventurous side: it is a real trade. I behaved like a thief in every country where I went, in China, in Africa, in America… all things considered, our trade is situated somewhere between pickpocket and tightrope walker… yes, we steal from people, we take something that belongs to them: their image, their culture. p. 114 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-cartier-bresson/henri-cartier-bresson/photography-has-fulfilled.md) > Nobody at Magnum decides for the other what he should do and everyone is free to tell someone else: “Well, what about this story? I don’t like it for this and that reason — because of this picture.” It is extremely fruitful to have somebody to talk to as an equal. This give and take is a most profitable thing because we keep learning from each other. I keep learning from the younger members just as I learned from Bob [Robert] Capa and Chim [David Seymour] how to make picture stories. Cornell Capa, for instance, has a very keen journalistic sense; and as for the other photographer, each makes his own contribution. Everybody in Magnum has full freedom; there’s no doctrine, there is no school, but there is something that unites all of us very strongly — I can’t define it; it may be a certain feeling of freedom and a respect for reality. p. 34 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-cartier-bresson/henri-cartier-bresson/nobody-at-magnum.md) > But with photography as with drawing or painting, once it is done I want to know whether it holds together or not. That is the real critique. I couldn’t care less if the person to whom I show what I do likes it or not — it takes all sorts to make a world and all that. To criticize is to put oneself in someone else’s shoes and try to figure out what they wanted to do. Only the “why” of things is important to me. p. 132 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-cartier-bresson/henri-cartier-bresson/but-with-photography.md) > A contact sheet is so interesting, because you see how a photographer thinks. He comes closer and closer to a subject, corrects it, looks at it again, and then with tiny movements turns around until it is in exactly the right and exact relation to him. Contact sheets may be compared to the way you drive a nail into a plank. First you give several light taps to build up a rhythm and align the nail with the wood. Then, much more quickly, and with as few strokes as possible, you hit the nail forcefully on the head and drive it in. p. 37 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-cartier-bresson/henri-cartier-bresson/a-contact-sheet.md) > When you use a camera, your visual concentration is intense, as it is when you draw. But if you overshoot, your contact sheet is likely to become a jumble of peelings. You need a lot of sand to discover a nugget. Shooting is a play between pickpocketing and tightrope walking; an endless play, fraught with huge tension. p. 102 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-cartier-bresson/henri-cartier-bresson/when-you-use.md) > Photography is solitary work. There is emulation. It is interesting to know what other people do. Even so, writers do not read everything that is published. A painter does not look at everything. You have to choose. It’s reality, it’s life that is important. We shouldn’t be sniffing around each other all the time, looking.... p. 75 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-cartier-bresson/henri-cartier-bresson/photography-is-solitary.md) > You have to look, and looking is so difficult. We are used to thinking. We reflect all the time, well or not, but people are not taught how to look. It takes a very long time. p. 70 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-cartier-bresson/henri-cartier-bresson/you-have-to-look.md) > Anybody can take photographs. I have seen in the Herald Tribune some taken by a monkey that managed, with a Polaroid camera, as well as some camera owners. It is precisely because our profession is open to everyone that it remains, in spite of its fascinating ease, extremely difficult. p. 45 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-cartier-bresson/henri-cartier-bresson/anybody-can-take.md)