Quotes from Henri Cartier-Bresson

For the world is movement, and you cannot be stationary in your attitude toward something that is moving.

In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject. The little human detail can become a Leitmotiv.

We photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing, and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again. We cannot develop and print a memory.

I believe that, through the act of living, the discovery of oneself is made concurrently with the discovery of the world around us, which can mold us, but which can also be affected by us. A balance must be established between these two worlds—the one inside us and the one outside us.

Photographier : c'est mettre sur la même ligne de mire la tête, l'oeil et le coeur.

Photography is simultaneously and instantaneously the recognition of a fact and the rigorous organization of visually perceived forms that express and signify that fact

For me the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the master of the instant which, in visual terms, questions and decides simultaneously. In order to "give a meaning" to the world, one has to feel oneself involved in what one frames through the viewfinder. This attitude requires concentration, a discipline of the mind, sensitivity, and a sense of geometry.

To take photographs is to hold one's breath when all faculties converge in the face of fleeing reality. It is at that moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy. To take photographs means to recognize—simultaneously and within a fraction of a second—both the fact itself and the rigorous organization of visually perceived forms that give it meaning. It is putting one's head, one's eye, and one's heart on the same axis.

How do you make your pictures? — I don't know, it's not important.

Reality offers us such wealth that we must cut some of it out on the spot, simplify. The question is, do we always cut out what we should? ­

There is no closed figure in nature. Every shape participates with another. No one thing is independent of another, and one thing rhymes with another, and light gives them shape.

If there is one point, it's humanity, it's life, the richness of life. The thing is simply to be sensitive.

qualunque cosa noi facciamo, kertész l'ha fatto prima.

Vos 10 000 premières photographies seront les pires.

Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera.

You have to try and stay alive in front of what you see, struggle with reality, get rid of habits and routines. You have to train yourself to look all the time, swinging between the conscious and the unconscious. In a sort of dance, I practice immediate, automatic, and intuitive drawing. I get a Normas joy from it. But the flaunting of reportage—getting into situations, "working" a subject—that is not photography.

Chim picked up his camera the way a doctor takes his stethoscope out of his bag, applying his diagnosis to the condition of the heart. His own was vulnerable.

En la vida como en la fotografía, hay que pasar los negativos a positivos

Tus primeras 10.000 fotos serán tus peores fotos.

It's seldom you make a great picture. you have to milk the cow quite a lot to get plenty of milk to make a little cheese.

It is the photo that takes you. One must not take photos.

Your first 10, 000 photographs are your worst.

In order to give meaning to the world, one has to feel oneself involved in what he frames. This attitude requires concentration, a discipline of mind, sensitivity, and a sense of geometry.

For the world is movement, and you cannot be stationary in your attitude toward something that is moving.