Frasi di Henri Cartier-Bresson

“…ogni volta che premo il pulsante dello scatto, è come se conservassi ciò che sta per sparire.”

“Quello che un buon fotografo deve cercare di fare è mettere sulla stessa linea di mira il cuore, la mente e l'occhio.”

“La fotografia è una mannaia che coglie nell'eternità l'istante che l'ha abbagliata.”

“Mio padre, nel 1932, non era affatto orgoglioso del mio mestiere di fotografo, osava appena dirlo ai suoi amici.”

“Una volta, non ricordo più dove, mi hanno chiesto cosa pensavo della Leica e ho detto che poteva essere un bacio bollente e appassionato, poteva essere anche un colpo di rivoltella, poteva essere il lettino dello psicanalista. Si può fare tutto con la Leica.”

“Avevo una Brownie-Box come tanti altri bambini, ma la usavo solo di tanto in tanto per riempire piccoli album con i ricordi delle vacanze.”

“Fare un ritratto per me è la cosa più difficile. Difficilissima. È un punto interrogativo poggiato su qualcuno.”

“Ho capito all'improvviso che la fotografia poteva fissare l'eternità in un attimo.”

“Ho scoperto la Leica; è diventata il prolungamento del mio occhio e non mi lascia più.”

“La mia grande passione è il tiro fotografico.”

“La mia Leica mi ha detto che la vita è immediata e folgorante.”

“Non ho mai abbondato la Leica, qualunque altro tentativo mi ha sempre fatto tornare da lei. […] Per me è la macchina fotografica.”

“Per me la fotografia di reportage ha bisogno di un occhio, un dito, due gambe.”

“Per me la fotografia non è cambiata dalle sue origini, tranne negli aspetti tecnici, che non sono la mia maggiore preoccupazione.”

“Per guardare bene, bisognerebbe imparare a diventare sordomuti.”

“Le fotografie possono raggiungere l'eternità attraverso un solo momento.”

“Ricordo con precisione gli avvenimenti che circondano ogni fotografia, indipendentemente dalla distanza temporale o geografica.”

“Proprio perché il nostro mestiere è aperto a tutti resta, nella sua allettante semplicità, molto difficile.”

“Guardi certi fotografi di oggi: pensano, cercano, vogliono, in loro si avverte la nevrosi della nostra epoca attuale… ma la gioia visiva, quella in loro non la sento. Si sentono delle ossessioni, il lato morboso, a volte, di un mondo suicida…”

“Si parla sempre troppo. Si usano troppe parole per non dire niente. La matita e la Leica sono silenziose.”

“[Sulle didascalie] Produciamo il testo per l'immagine e non l'immagine per il testo.”

“La curiosità è essenziale alla fotografia, ma la sua spaventosa controparte è l’indiscrezione, che è una mancanza di pudore.”

“In ogni caso, sfocata o meno, nitida o meno, una fotografia buona è una questione di proporzioni, di rapporti tra neri e bianchi.”

“Tutte queste scuole di fotografia non sono una cosa seria.”

“Si parla di "lavoro", ma una cosa è certa, la fotografia non è un lavoro. Noi non lavoriamo; ci concediamo un "duro divertimento", come mi diceva un amico medico.”

“La pubblicità è il braccio armato di un sistema che senza di essa crollerebbe. Ci costringe a comprare.”

“A volte mi chiedono: "Quale è la foto che preferisci tra quelle che hai realizzato?". Non saprei, non mi interessa. Mi interessa di più la prossima fotografia, o il luogo che visiterò.”

“Ci sono scuole per qualsiasi cosa, dove si impara di tutto e alla fine non si sa niente, non si sa niente di niente. Non esiste una scuola per la sensibilità. Non esiste, è impensabile. Ci vuole un certo bagaglio intellettuale.”

“Uno ha un talento o non ce l’ha. Se hai un talento, ne sei responsabile. Ci puoi lavorare sopra.”

“For me, the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity.”

“It is through living that we discover ourselves, at the same time as we discover the world around us.”

“The photograph itself doesn't interest me. I want only to capture a minute part of reality.”

“Sometimes a single event can be so rich in itself and its facets that it is necessary to move all around it in your search for the solution to the problems it poses — for the world is movement, and you cannot be stationary in your attitude toward something that is moving.”

“In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject. The little human detail can become a Leitmotiv.”

“Reality offers us such wealth that we must cut some of it out on the spot, simplify. The question is, do we always cut out what we should? ­”

“How do you make your pictures?
— I don’t know, it’s not important.”

“If there is one point, it's humanity, it's life, the richness of life. The thing is simply to be sensitive.”

“I hate looking at photography books or illustrated magazines. This is not because of contempt. I’d rather look at contact sheets: that is where you can sense the individual.”

“The picture-story involves a joint operation of the brain, the eye and the heart.”

“To photograph is to hold one's breath, when all faculties converge to capture fleeting reality. It's at that precise moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy.”

“To photograph: it is to put on the same line of sight the head, the eye and the heart.”

“Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again.”

“Sharpness is a bourgeois concept”

“We had a certain idea of our work, a respect for others, and above all, [we were determined] not to be paparazzi. For the photographer, curiosity is essential, the terrible counterpart is indiscretion, which is a lack of restraint.”

“I think cynicism is the worst thing because it kills everything. There’s no more honesty, no more poetry, no more freshness. Cynicism is the worst thing — a kind of smart person who’s got all the answers. This is death. It kills creation. There’s no love, no tenderness, nothing at all left. There’s no hatred even, nothing. Equally dangerous is the detached attitude that says, “Everything is fun!””

“There are photographers who invent, others who discover. Personally, I am interested in discoveries, not for the trials or experiences but to capture life itself. I flee from the dangers of the anecdote and the picturesque, which are very easy and better than sensational, but quite as bad. To my mind, photography has the power to evoke, and must not simply document. We have to be abstract, just like nature.”

“Photography has fulfilled my adventurous side: it is a real trade. I behaved like a thief in every country where I went, in China, in Africa, in America… all things considered, our trade is situated somewhere between pickpocket and tightrope walker… yes, we steal from people, we take something that belongs to them: their image, their culture.”

“Photography is solitary work. There is emulation. It is interesting to know what other people do. Even so, writers do not read everything that is published. A painter does not look at everything. You have to choose. It’s reality, it’s life that is important. We shouldn’t be sniffing around each other all the time, looking….”

“You have to look, and looking is so difficult. We are used to thinking. We reflect all the time, well or not, but people are not taught how to look. It takes a very long time.”

“For me, the great myth is the Greek myth of Antaeus, who had to touch Earth to regain his strength. I know I must always keep in contact with the concrete, concrete reality, the small incident and the small, specific truth, which might have wide reverberations.”

“But with photography as with drawing or painting, once it is done I want to know whether it holds together or not. That is the real critique. I couldn’t care less if the person to whom I show what I do likes it or not — it takes all sorts to make a world and all that. To criticize is to put oneself in someone else’s shoes and try to figure out what they wanted to do. Only the “why” of things is important to me.”

“I am a visual man. I watch, watch, watch. I understand things through my eyes.”

“Photography has never been a problem for me, [what is important] is looking, the way of looking, of questioning with your eyes: I don’t think; I am impulsive, it is /looking/ that’s important, not photography. Now, since I have started drawing, I’ve merely switched tools, but it is still looking that’s important. To look the right way, one should learn to become a deaf-mute.”

“Anybody can take photographs. I have seen in the Herald Tribune some taken by a monkey that managed, with a Polaroid camera, as well as some camera owners. It is precisely because our profession is open to everyone that it remains, in spite of its fascinating ease, extremely difficult.”

“Nobody at Magnum decides for the other what he should do and everyone is free to tell someone else: “Well, what about this story? I don’t like it for this and that reason — because of this picture.” It is extremely fruitful to have somebody to talk to as an equal. This give and take is a most profitable thing because we keep learning from each other. I keep learning from the younger members just as I learned from Bob [Robert] Capa and Chim [David Seymour] how to make picture stories. Cornell Capa, for instance, has a very keen journalistic sense; and as for the other photographer, each makes his own contribution. Everybody in Magnum has full freedom; there’s no doctrine, there is no school, but there is something that unites all of us very strongly — I can’t define it; it may be a certain feeling of freedom and a respect for reality.”

“When you use a camera, your visual concentration is intense, as it is when you draw. But if you overshoot, your contact sheet is likely to become a jumble of peelings. You need a lot of sand to discover a nugget. Shooting is a play between pickpocketing and tightrope walking; an endless play, fraught with huge tension.”

“If I am asked about the photographer’s role in our times, the power of the image and so on, I do not want to launch into explanations. I only know that people who know how to look are as rare as those who know how to listen.”

“You have to have some psychological insight, you have to know the people and you must work in a way that’s acceptable to them. There you must smile — never laugh, because that’s considered making fun. Smile, take your time, and never come bursting in with your own personality. You have to lie low. Of course you can push and perhaps raise your voice a notch, but like a sensitive emulsion, a sensitive plate. Approach gently, tenderly, and never intrude, never push. Otherwise, if you use your elbows, it will work against you. Above all, be human!”