Henri Cartier-Bresson, In the Forbidden City, ten thousand recruits line up to form a new ... [+]
When the French photographer, Henri Cartier-Bresson first visited China in the 1940s, he was surprised by what he saw.
A new exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum reveals what he saw. “Henri Cartier-Bresson: China 1948-1949｜1958” showcases his overlooked photojournalism work taken in China, between the years of 1948 and 1949, and then again in 1958. The photos are what the co-curator Su Ying-lung calls “capturing priceless impressions of the era and bearing witness to historic moments of transition.”
This exhibition traces the photographer’s time in China, during a time of upheaval, protest and suppression, as he was there when Mao Zedong came into power in 1958, as well.
It starts out in 1948, when Cartier-Bresson was on assignment for Life magazine, where he traveled around China for 10 months, photographing the country's culture, politics and people. What he inevitably did was document history.
The country was in political transition and Cartier-Bresson shot Beijing during the final days of the Chinese Nationalist Party and witnessed the takeover of the new regime in Shanghai. He returned in 1958 to document the changes a decade later.
Experts say these are among the legendary photographer's best-known works, for his empathy, in capturing the fabric, and ever-changing facets, of Chinese society.
Photo by Henri Cartier-Bresson. A waiter or shopkeeper sits at the open window of a tavern, while a ... [+]
Among the photos in the exhibition, there are desolate street scenes, lonely looking shopkeepers, swaths of land and nature, as well as political gatherings. The most powerful photos are those drenched with heavy, dramatic fog, as Cartier-Bresson was a master of light and shadow. It includes one shot, which captures thousands of recruits lining up to form a new nationalist regiment in the Forbidden City, a palace in Beijing, which he shot in 1948.
“Everyone discovers themselves and also discovers the world,” Cartier-Bresson once said. “To photograph is to put on the same line of sight the head, the eye and the heart.”
Photo by Henri Cartier-Bresson, During the typhoon. Shanghai, end of July 1949.
For Cartier-Bresson fans, there is the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris, which has ongoing exhibitions, showing works from the photographer's archive, alongside young photographers. The current exhibition, which runs until August 23, shows works by Martine Franck and Marie Bovo, two pioneering photographers of their time who carry on the legacy of photographic excellence that Cartier-Bresson led.
