cover image Photoportraits

Photoportraits

Henri Cartier-Bresson. Thames & Hudson, $50 (283pp) ISBN 978-0-500-54109-8

From the 50-year career of an artist without peer, these spontaneous studies portray in his unique manner more than 250 subjects both great and unknown""never from a formal point of view,'' writes de Mandiargues, a close friend. He speaks in his preface of ``summer lighting,'' a kind of shock of kinship linking the photographer to his subject. But there is irony, too, and a brooding commentary on the human passion``nearly always an enigma is posed.'' We see a well-fed and tranquil Malcolm X, a dubious Stravinsky, a puttering Arthur Miller, a fatherly Charles DeGaulle, the Windsors clearly in love, Harry Truman with the old fire now far behind his eyes. A remarkable collection. November 4