Voting Station

Henri Cartier-Bresson

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Photographer

The Resume

    (August 22, 1908-August 3, 2004)
    Born in Chanteloup-en-Brie, France
    Known for his candid photographs
    Considered a father of modern photojournalism
    Published the collections 'The Decisive Moment' (1952), 'People of Moscow' (1955), 'China in Transition' (1956), 'Henri Cartier-Bresson and the Artless Art' (1966), 'Man and Machine' (1969), 'The Face of Asia' (1972), 'Photoportraits' (1985), 'America in Passing' (1991), 'The Mind's Eye' (1999) and 'The Man, the Image and the World' (2003)

Why he might be annoying:

    He liked to boast about being descended from assassin Charlotte Corday.
    He spent a year in Africa as a big-game hunter (1931).
    He helped Jean Renoir make a film for the Communist party denouncing France's 200 leading families, including his own.
    His second wife was three decades younger than him.
    He hated being photographed so much that when he accepted an honorary degree from Oxford (1975) he held a paper in front of his face to keep people from taking his picture.

Why he might not be annoying:

    Despite his left-wing views, he never joined the Communist Party.
    He was captured and imprisoned by the Nazis in World War II.
    He escaped on his third attempt and joined the resistance movement, aiding escapees and secretly documenting the occupation and then liberation of France.
    He took the last picture of Mahatma Gandhi before his assassination.
    He said, 'There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. 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.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 4 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 9 Votes: 55.56% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 4 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 7 Votes: 57.14% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 11 Votes: 54.55% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 24 Votes: 29.17% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 8 Votes: 62.50% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 23 Votes: 60.87% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 13 Votes: 46.15% Annoying