“I’m not interested in photography. I’m interested in geometry and emotion.”
– Henri Cartier-Bresson

OK. That’s a paraphrase. It’s the way I remember something he said in a documentary I saw.
So many brilliant observations, both photographic and otherwise. You’ve gotta love him. I do.

Thanks, http://psychogeographicart.wordpress.com for this nifty montage.

“Our eye must constantly measure, evaluate. We alter our perspective by a slight bending of the knees; we convey the chance meeting of lines by a simple shift of our heads a thousandth of an inch. . . We compose almost at the same time we press the shutter, and in placing the camera closer or farther from the subject, we shape the details-taming or being tamed by them.”

“I’m not responsible for my photographs. Photography is not documentary, but intuition, a poetic experience. It’s drowning yourself, dissolving yourself, and then sniff, sniff, sniff-being sensitive to coincidence. You can’t go looking for it; you can’t want it, or you won’t get it. First you must lose yourself. Then it happens.”

“Photography is like that. It’s YES, YES, YES. And there is no maybe. All the maybes should go to the trash, because it’s an instant. It’s a presence. It’s a moment. It’s there! YES, YES, YES. It’s an affirmation.”

 

Henri Cartier Bresson. “En Brie.” 1968