Selected by Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004) at the end of his life, the photographs in the exhibition L’expérience du paysage(The Landscape Experience) testify to the artist’s approach to what is not simply a setting to observe human being, but a subject in its own right. Each of these images, taken between the 1930s and the 1990s in Europe, Asia and America, illustrates the construction of landscape by the photographer, whether natural or urban.
The exhibition The Landscape Experience by Henri Cartier-Bresson is a lesson in construction. The photographer’s gaze is selective in front of the immensity offered by nature or encountered urbanization. The encapsulation of the characters – Cartier-Bresson’s great contribution to photography – gives meaning as well as scale and participates in a dynamic way in the geometry that is dear to him.
This unprecedented exhibition in Paris brings together famous photographs and others lesser known chosen by Henri Cartier-Bresson with Agnès Sire, shortly before the photographer’s death.
Another form of construction will see the completion, during the summer, of the extension works on the HCB Foundation, which will gain 30% of exhibition space by adding a new space, the Tube, which will be added to the Cube opened in 2018. The inauguration will take place with an event exhibition bringing together, or rather reconciling, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Martin Parr through many never seen and exceptional documents.
It will also finally be the opportunity to simultaneously receive the wonderful retrospective of Jan Groover, created by Photo Elysée in Lausanne, several times postponed by the closures due to Covid.
A very dense program which opens a new page for the Foundation, with a large presence of Henri Cartier-Bresson, rue des Archives as in other major cities, Seoul and Milan, in particular.
François Hébel Director
“It is salutary to contemplate the landscapes of Giovanni Bellini, Hokusai, Poussin, Corot, Cézanne, Bonnard and so many others, and to go out into nature yourself, pencil in hand.” Henri Cartier-Bresson, September 1999
Henri Cartier-Bresson : L’expérience du paysage
July 1 – September 25, 2022
Fondation HCB
79 rue des Archives – 75003 Paris
www.henricartierbresson.org
