Henri Cartier-Bresson sur la photographie

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« Le contenu ne peut être séparé de la forme »

Le photographe français Henri Cartier-Bresson, interviewé en anglais, donne ici une définition de la photographie, selon laquelle la subjectivité de l'artiste contribue à faire percevoir le monde qui l'entoure. Cette définition s'applique parfaitement à l'œuvre de Cartier-Bresson, qui a fait des reportages sur les grands événements du siècle, de la guerre d'Espagne à la décolonisation et au tiers-monde, mais dont chaque photo est, en plus d'un document une œuvre d'art.

Institut des Archives Sonores

« To me photography is a simultaneous recognition in a fraction of a second of a significance of an event, as well as of a precise organisation or form, which gives that event its proper expression. I believe that through the act of living, the discovery of oneself is made concurrently with the discovery of the world around us. Which can mould us, but which can also be affected by us. A balance must be established between these two worlds. The one inside us and the one outside us. As a result of a constant reciprocal process, both these worlds come to form a single one. And it is this world that we must communicate. But this takes care only of a content of a picture. For me content can not be separated from form. By form, I mean a rigorous, geometrical organisation or interplay of surfaces, lines and values. It is in this organisation alone that our conceptions and emotions become concrete and communicable. In photography, visual organisation can stand only from a developed instinct. »