“Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Decisive Moment show,” the second exhibition of Gallery Lumiere, consist of thirteen works of Henri Cartier-Bresson, arguably one of the most significant figure in the 20th century photography. The show also exhibits various publications of Henri Cartier-Bresson. One of them is The Decisive Moment, a collectable book, which left an indelible mark in the history of photography since it has been published in 1952.

Henri Cartier-Bresson’s ‘The Decisive Moment’ has made an outcome of increasing the number of devotees and has become one of the aesthetic studies of photographic art after the phrase ‘The Decisive Moment’ has been created. The decisive moment means capturing the meaningful instant in a strictly composed moment so as a story and a composition meet in the most harmonious instant. It is the work of capturing the best moment at the proper time with understated and geometrical composition. The moment is not only visual instant, but it also means the time, which shows the subject itself the most. Also, it is perfectly consisted of an exceedingly short instant with the expression of a subject, the intention of an artist, and the surrounding circumstances in a photograph’s frame. The decisive moment, as Cartier-Bresson tersely defined it, is ‘the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as the precise organization of forms which gives that event its proper expression.” Cartier-Bresson’s decisive moment demonstrates a humor and an irony in our daily routine, which could be easily missed or could not recognizable.

This exhibition aims to expand the overview of our gallery, which is reviewing the 20th century photography masterpieces through the last century photography masterpieces. We are reconsidering the meaning of the 20th century photographs by works of the 20th century photography aesthetics’ master Henri Cartier-Bresson, who developed the photography into a stage of art, and his works will be another chance of experiencing the traditional analogue artistic photographs in the progress of digital art. Also, it will be advantages for Korean collectors to see and keep the masterpieces in worldwide trends with the increasing property quality of photography.

Henri Cartier-Bresson was born on 1908 in Chanteloup, France. He learned to take a photograph by a chance and start to photograph from his trip of Africa. From the time, he traveled all part of France, Italy, and Spain and concentrated on producing images. Most of his early works are from the time when he traveled. However, he was also interested in a movie as much a photography, so he was concentrated in making a movie from 1936 to 1939. In 1937, he took photographs and produced a documentary movie ‘The Victory of life’ in Spain during their civil war.
He was taken prisoner by the German during the World War II. He escaped to third attempt in 1943 and returned to France. He Worked as part of a team, photographs the Liberation of Paris. Directs “Le Retour” (The Return), a documentary on the repatriation of prisoners of war and detainees. He became one of the significant photographers after the World War II. He founded the cooperative agency Magnum Photos with Robert Capa, David Seymour (Chim), William Vandivert and George Rodger.
After he published the photo book The Decisive Moment in 1952, the world photography is fall in a fever of “The Decisive Moment’. Until the late 1970’s, he traveled all over the world, and he captured the unique images of the world. However, He continued to explore the medium of photography until the early 1970's, when he turned away from photography to spend time working with his favored medium of drawing in 1974.
Cartier-Bresson only took photographs with a Leica without a flash during his entire career. It was a pivotal experience. A new world, a new kind of seeing, spontaneous and unpredictable, opened up to him through the narrow rectangle of the 35 mm viewfinder.
A camera was a tool for eyes, which is confronted with a life for Cartier-Bresson. He thought that photography is a diary and a memory of life. Therefore, his intention of taking photographs is to amalgamate a photographer and a subject momentarily into one. His concept of photography centered on what he described as "the decisive moment"- the moment evoking the significance of a given situation as all the external elements fall perfectly into place.
Henri Cartier-Bresson, one of the great photographers of the 20th century, has died at the age of 95.