Description

“THE RAPHAEL OF 20TH-CENTURY PHOTOGRAPHERS”: CARTIER-BRESSON’S OTHER CHINA, 1954, INSCRIBED BY HIM

CARTIER-BRESSON, Henri and SARTRE, Jean Paul. D’une Chine à l’Autre. (Paris: Robert Delpire, 1954). Quarto, original beige cloth, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom clamshell box.

First edition of this photo-documentary of China’s revolution, with an essay by Sartre and 144 black-and-white photographs, inscribed, “a Michael, trés cordialement, Henri Cartier Bresson.”

“Cartier-Bresson has a special interest in photographing people and in capturing the essence of what has not previously been seen. He is famous for his theory of the ‘decisive moment—that is seizing the split second when the subject stands revealed in its most significant aspect? Today he ranks as one of the most important and influential photographers of this century” (Blodgett, 96)—“the Raphael of 20th-century photographers” (Icons of Photography, 58). “Cartier-Bresson’s was a search for the harmony and balance manifested in all events; he photographed to find the ‘transcendent’ order that links all cultures, all nations, and all historical moments” (Roth, 20). When he left for China in December 1948, he was already aware that the seizure of power by the Communists would upset the political and social balance throughout the East. With his special talent for objectivity and spontaneous reaction, he documented the last days of Kuomintang and the rise of the Army of the People. This revealing photo-documentary of his eleven-month stay is the only photographic record of the Chinese revolution. In his introductory essay, Sartre observes “the importance of people detaching themselves in order to give meaning to reality. We become what we are only by the radical and profound rejection of what others have said about us” (Steven Fuller). Book fine. Dust jacket very good, with a few heavy chips and closed tears to edges. A near-fine copy, inscribed.