Henri Cartier-Bresson: Here and Now

Substantial and inclusive, this volume of artist Cartier-Bresson's life work positions the photographer as a major 20th century social, political, and artistic force. Cartier-Bresson helped found Magnum Photos, was a pioneer of photojournalism and street photography, and spent a great deal of his life traveling and documenting the shifting political and material contexts of the time with the assistance of his camera. The volume comes in conjunction with the first retrospective of his work following his 2004 death, with Cheroux both curating the Centre Pompidou exhibition and providing the monograph's text. The expansive range of images presents a smartly nuanced Cartier-Bresson, allowing the text to likewise explore the philosophy, aesthetics, and politics that drove the work. As a result, the standard narrative of the photographer, in which he moves from early surrealist concerns into photojournalism, becomes instead a narrative of diverse influences and concerns, ideas resonating and evolving across images. While the academically-minded text occasionally comes across a bit stodgy, the excitement of the 500 images remedies any tedium. There are already a large number of Cartier-Bresson books available, but the comprehensiveness and quality of this latest monograph distinguishes it as a significant contribution. (May)