‘Henri Cartier-Bresson, Scrapbook’

Published by Thames & Hudson; pp256; £50.00

by Shaun Newman

Henri Cartier-Bresson is a name many photographers and artists will be familiar with. Known for his part in the founding of Magnum photography as much as for his passion for capturing “the decisive moment”, Bresson is an endlessly fascinating and inspiring photographer.

‘Scrapbook’ is a book that attempts to recreate Bresson’s own original scrapbook which was a closely guarded record of his photography throughout his life. Such a document might well be regarded as the holy grail for many followers and admirers of his work but sadly Bresson demolished the scrapbook for reasons only he knew, but which some believe was due to the worn pages in the original.

When I noticed that Thames & Hudson had published ‘Scrapbook’, I was both excited and sceptical. Knowing that Bresson had dismantled the original I knew this would not be a direct copy of his work, that at best it would be a ‘best guess’ based on what a few people knew. When I received my copy and started to look through it, however, I knew any misgivings were misplaced. The Foundation Henri Cartier-Bresson has beautifully reproduced a quite remarkable piece of work.

There is, quite frankly, only one format for this book, which is of course hardback and about the size of a scrapbook, which you may remember from childhood. The cover is a replica of the original – black, beautifully embossed with gold lettering with the word ‘scrapbook’ gold backed and prominent in the middle of the front cover. Immediately you know this is an impressive book, it just screams ‘quality’ at you. Each page is of high quality paper in a matt finish and the print quality, as you’d expect in a book like this, is excellent. You can, at the time of writing, buy this impressive book from a well known online retailer for the absolute bargain price of £27.09: these people are practically giving it away!

As for the content, the book includes many of Bresson’s photographs from 1932 through to 1946, mostly presented in their original size. Before we get to the photographs there’s a Foreword by Martine Franck, president of the Bresson foundation, as well as two further essays, which I would encourage you to read as they really do reveal a lot about Bresson’s life and the journey this scrapbook will reveal.

‘Scrapbook Stories’ by Agnés Sire gives us an amazing, almost biographical look into Bresson’s life and some of the story behind the scrapbook; it is a truly fascinating read.

‘Unpredictable Glances’ by Michel Frizot walks us through the lessons we can learn from the scrapbook. Frizot takes us through each key period of Bresson’s life as dictated by the photographs the scrapbook contains. Along the way he describes in fascinating detail how Bresson’s photography changed during the period 1932 – 1946.

Then we get to the scrapbook itself which, mercifully, avoids the temptation to flood the page with in-depth descriptions of each image. Instead, you are left to your own devices, leaving room for each picture exactly as you’d expect from a scrapbook. There are occasions where text is used to explain key pieces in the book – as in the case of the famous picture ‘Behind the Gare Saint-Lazar’ shot in 1933, an image of a man jumping over a puddle (or into it). I had no idea that the finished image, which is arguably one of Bresson’s most famous, was actually a crop. Having been shot through a fence at the ‘decisive moment’ there was little time to frame the image perfectly so Bresson chose to crop the image and here we get a rare glimpse of the original next to the finished shot.

There are images of children in Spain 1933, playing in the streets wearing rags and covered in dirt, images in which you see joy and yet can’t fail to notice that life is hard. On page 107 there’s an image of a lone woman walking across an empty square with the aid of a crutch while at the bottom left a dog just enters the frame. It’s a striking picture that leaves you wondering where she’s going, where she’s been, what happened to her leg? You are drawn into the world Bresson has captured, you can’t help it.

As we move through the book to Mexico in 1934 we again get playful children in damaged streets, then beggars, a family in a window (the husband deep in thought), prostitutes in the street clearly displaying their merchandise and occasionally in some very odd poses. Later in the book we see images of the crowd desperately trying to get a glimpse of the proceedings during King George’s coronation in 1937 using mirrors on a stick to try and see above the crowd.

On page 206 we see a replica page from the original scrapbook containing pictures of Henri Matisse at home in Venice 1943, taken shortly after escaping a German prisoner of war camp and recovering his Leica which he had buried for safe keeping. It is during this period Cartier-Bresson photographs writers and artists whilst also carrying out Resistance activities.

As we move into 1943 – 1944 we are presented with shots taken during the liberation of Paris and on page 219 we see a shot of Paul Eluard and Pablo Picasso in Picasso’s studio, Paris.

The final three images in the book are of Bresson’s father André, a reflection of Bresson himself with his first wife (though it is difficult to spot the man himself) and finally a picture of his sister Nicole. It seems fitting, after all the images we’ve seen in the book, to come back to Bresson and his family, a reminder that this book is as much about the man as it is about the work.

Scrapbook is an incredible body of work which you will find yourself going through time after time, you’ll never grow tired of seeing the images presented inside the elaborate binding and you’ll learn more about Bresson’s photography here than from any other book in print today.