I. HCB's Early Life

Growing up in the French bourgeoisie

Chanteloup, Seine-et-Marne, August 22, 1908. At about thirty miles from Paris, Henri Cartier-Bresson, the eldest of five children, is born in the wealthy textile family of the Cartier-Bresson's (FIG.2). His parents are so sparse that Henri, as a little boy, now and then thinks he's poor, although in practice he gets everthing he needs.

Soon painting captures the heart of the little Henri. When he's five, he first visits the studio of his uncle, Louis Cartier-Bresson, who will perish at the front some years later. In the few interviews he gives, Cartier-Bresson sometimes called Louis his mythical father. Here he sniffs the atmosphere of painting – an experience he will never let go.

He takes classes at the Ecole Fénelon, a strict Catholic school, where nevertheless he already devours the works of Rimbaud, Proust, Nietzsche and Schopenhauer at a very young age. All these elements give him the broad world view which will enable him later to immortalize, as one of the first of his time, everyday scenes in a major way. To no surprise, Cartier-Bresson is often considered a humanist.

Although his father, who wants Henri to continue the family business, forces him to start his HEC (Hautes Etudes Commerciales), Henri manages to fail the academic training three times. This way, he does away with the ambitions of his parents. He wants, however, to become an art painter, just like his uncle. Not really a new thing for the Cartier-Bresson's, since both his father and grandfather painted in their sparetime too. Moreover, since he was twelve, Henri followed painting classes once a week.

Meanwhile Henri Cartier-Bresson already experiments occasionally with photography, but rather as specimens for his paintings than with the intention to deliver finished pictures (FIG.3). Note also that, although Cartier-Bresson will sympathize with communist ideas during the 1930s and, through his work, will rebel against the richness of the textile business from his father, it is exactly the very same wealth which allows him to experiment with photography on a more individual level than his contemporaries, now but also later on. Indeed, in the 1920s photography still is an expensive affair.