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Social distancing as seen in the photographs of Henri Cartier-Bresson: a thread

(Cafe Lipp, Saint Germain-de-Pres, 1969) Image
We begin with examples of social distancing in the 1930s photographs of Henri Cartier-Bresson

(Livorno, Italy, 1932; Florence, Italy, 1933; Hyères, France, 1932; Marseille, France, 1932) ImageImageImageImage
More examples of social distancing in the 1930s photographs of Henri Cartier-Bresson

(Behind Saint-Lazare Station, Paris, 1932; Marseilles, France, 1932; Avenue du Maine, Paris, 1932; Brussels, 1932) ImageImageImageImage
More examples of social distancing in the 1930s photographs of Henri Cartier-Bresson

(Barrio Chino, Barcelona, 1933; Barcelona, 1933; Roman Amphitheater, Valencia, Spain, 1933; Madrid, 1933) ImageImageImageImage
More examples of social distancing in the 1930s photographs of Henri Cartier-Bresson

(New York, 1935; Hyde Park, London, 1937) ImageImage
He was drafted into the film and photo unit of the French army in 1940 and taken prisoner by the Germans. After three years he escaped on his third attempt, hid on a farm in Touraine, and began working for the French underground

(Resistance on the Rhine; wine grower in Touraine) ImageImage
In 1944, while hiding out in France, HCB was asked by the publisher Pierre Braun to photograph writers and artists for a book project that never materialized.

(Albert Camus and Pablo Picasso) ImageImage
HCB visited Matisse at his villa in the south of France. Matisse was in his 60s and mostly chair / bed-bound following a major surgery three years earlier. When later shown the mock-up for the book, Matisse refused to be in it. “Too soon for the cult of personality,” he said. ImageImageImageImage
Many in the U.S. believed HCB had died in the war, so he went to NY in 1946 to open an exhibition at MoMA. In 1946-47, he photographed many artists and writers in the U.S.

(Langston Hughes and Carson McCullers in NY; Truman Capote in New Orleans; William Faulkner in Oxford, MS) ImageImageImageImage
More examples of social distancing in the 1946-47 photographs of Henri Cartier-Bresson in the U.S.

(Harlem; downtown NYC; Louisiana, New Mexico) ImageImageImageImage
HCB spends 1948-50 in the Far East. In India he had exclusive access to Gandhi as he hunger-strikes to protest violence between Hindus and Muslims and the riots in which millions died. Gandhi was assassinated the day after these photos were taken ImageImage
In China HCB witnesses the last days of the Kuomintang in Beijing and then records the new regime’s takeover in Shanghai

(Chinese eunuch of the Special Court of the Last Dynasty; visitor to the Forbidden City; two street scenes from Beijing) ImageImageImageImage
Some more examples of social distancing in the photographs of Henri Cartier-Bresson in West Germany in 1952 ImageImageImage
More social distancing in HCB’s early 1950s photographs

(Briançon, France, 1951; Montmartre, Paris, 1952; rue le Boétie, Paris, 1953; rue de Bassano, Paris, 1953) ImageImageImageImage
In 1954, HCB is the first foreign photographer allowed in the U.S.S.R since the start of the Cold War

(Birthplace of Stalin near Zugdidi, Georgia; two factory workers in Georgia; a solo bow at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow) ImageImageImage
And back to Paris in 1955, where we find even more social distancing! ImageImageImage
In 1960-61, HCB did a now-famous series with his old friend Alberto Giacometti. They met in the mid-1930s in Paris as both sought a way out of surrealism and back to reality. ImageImageImageImage
But don’t worry, there is still time in the early 1960s to travel around and photograph more famous people

(Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Malcom X, Robert Kennedy) ImageImageImageImage
Early 1960s in Europe: some expert examples of social distancing

(Naples, Italy, 1963; Epirus, Greece, 1961; Cyclades, Island of Siphos, Greece, 1961) ImageImageImage
Henri Cartier-Bresson travels to Mexico in 1963-64. His early fascination with surrealism brought him there for the first time in 1934; he believed the avant-garde movement was most prominent there, especially during the Day of the Dead festival ImageImageImage
Some truly expert social distancing in Turkey in 1964-65

(Camondo Steps in Istanbul; a gentleman in Istanbul; Kurdish village of Aligur near Unfa; Pergamon) ImageImageImageImage
More mid-1960s travels: Kosovo in 1965; Volcano of Mount Aso in Japan in 1965; a young lady very committed to social distancing in Cuba in 1966; yoga in the Arunchala Mountains in South India in 1966 ImageImageImageImage
In 1967, HCB took this shot of Martine Franck, a photographer thirty years his junior, whom he would marry in 1970. You may recognize these stems if you visit my twitter profile from time to time Image
HCB largely retired from photography in the early 1970s, but I have two delightful late photos for the penultimate tweet in this thread. Our Cat Ulysses and Martine’s Shadow is from 1988, and the next is from Rome in 1989 (perhaps next I will do CATS IN THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF HCB) ImageImage
Last but not least: a self-portrait near Céreste, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France, taken in 1999. He hated to be photographed. Image
"Life changes every minute. The world is being created every minute and the world is falling to pieces every minute." Henri Cartier-Bresson
Bonus tweet: some very good social disty cats ImageImageImageImage
Composer Igor Stravinsky and his cat; artist Henri Matisse and his cat; novelist Roger Nimier and his cat; photojournalist William Eugene Smith and his cat ImageImageImageImage
A few more from HCB’s 1946-47 trip to the U.S. - scenes from New York City, not far from my own quarantine (first two are Brooklyn Bridge, third is Fulton Street fish market) ImageImageImageImage
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