I’ve always been a huge fan of Henri Cartier-Bresson and I’ve been trying to get my hands on a copy of “The Decisive Moment” for some time. Unfortunately, it’s quite rare and extremely expensive – more than I wanted to pay. So, I was very pleased to discover that the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation had re-printed it:

The Decisive Moment (Images à la Sauvette in French) is one of the greatest photography books ever published. It brings together photographic material from the first twenty years of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s career.

Images à la Sauvette was published in 1952 by Verve, with an original cover by Matisse. It was the result of a collaboration between the photographer, the famous art critic and publisher Tériade, and the painter, at the peak of his career. The American version, published the same year by Simon and Schuster, was the first to introduce the now-famous expression “decisive moment”.

The book, which reveals the intrinsic duality of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s work, the combination of intimate interpretation with documentary observation, received tremendous critical acclaim within the art world and is considered a “bible for photographers”, in the words of photographer Robert Capa. It remains an essential reference for photographers to this day.

The original book, now out of print, has become a collector’s item. The Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson sought to make this classic photography book accessible again, in a smaller and practical format, at an affordable price. The latest print features the same material as the original 1952 edition and is accompanied by a comprehensive study of the book’s making, its enduring popularity and the considerations behind its title, written by Clément Chéroux, Director of the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Most of the book is taken up by Cartier-Bresson’s wonderful photographs. These are preceded by a short (14 page) introduction written by Cartier-Bresson where he presents his views on photography. I’m sure that when the book was published this was absolutely fascinating, but I’ve read a lot about and by Cartier-Bresson, so it didn’t tell me much that I didn’t already know.

To me the most interesting part of the book (other than the photographs, many of which I had not seen before) was Clément Chéroux’s piece: “A Bible for Photographers” described above.

The book is much smaller than the original, nor is the printing apparently as excellent (or so I’ve read somewhere) as in the original. Despite this I’m glad that I bought it.