Reviews

Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Mind's Eye: Writings on Photography and Photographers by

jcoryv's review

4.0

Just over 100 pages... I enjoyed the first half, which contained essays on art/photography. The last half was a collection of snippets about other artists he knew. Heartfelt I’m sure, but meh. It was interesting to look up the work of those folks though.

mims111's review

challenging informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

3.75

lofimichelleeo's review

4.0

5 stars for the first half. Cartier-Bresson gets me when it comes to how he approaches photography. The second half about some of his friends and travels were much less interesting.

fiademi's review

5.0

Just as himself, the book is simple and short, but beautiful. What I loved the most was how he recognized the were topics he could not talk about (for example color photography which at the time was still very new) and still managed to capture and define the true esence of being a photographer as an artist. I wanted to read what he tought specially because of his drawing and peinture background, and also to know how he described his process of work. He writes about what he likes to photograph (people, place, ordinary life) and also describes his relationship with other photographers and artists. By the end the book he shares in a very few words certain travel experiences (for example Russia, China and Cuba) and how traveling affected (or not) is train of work.
I leave you with a few amazing quotes from the book:

"Photography implies the recognition of a rhythm in the world of real things."

"To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which give that event its proper expression."

casualblasphemy's review

3.0

An enjoyable, if somewhat self-indulgent, collection of essays by one of modern photography's founding fathers.

jzahlit's review

3.0

Enjoyed his thoughts on photography and his creative friends.