Foto Arsenal / Science Fiction – A Non History of Plants

Photo Arsenal / Science Fiction - A Non History of Plants

A man jumps over a large puddle to keep feet dry, the hoe almost touching the ground - a tiny moment later the composition would be gone in the reflecting water surface. The decisive moment – ​​in photography this determines everything. It is a synthesis of knowledge, sensitivity, technology, form, chance and pure intuition. When all these elements come together, they create powerful, unique images that transcend the everyday and reveal something of the essence of life. Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004) is considered one of the founders of modern photojournalism and is one of the most famous photographers of the 20th century.

In 1947 he co-founded the Magnum agency and shaped subsequent generations of photographers with his narrative photography. On the streets he becomes an actor with a camera and establishes the genre of Street Photography, which depicts interpersonal behavior in everyday life, at work and in leisure time. Cartier-Bresson thus becomes the inventor of the observation and analysis of human actions in spontaneous moments and uses his camera to show how behavioral patterns become visible in fleeting scenes that would otherwise have been lost in the hustle and bustle of the streets.


His reports show key cultural and global political events such as Gandhi's funeral (1948) and the end of Kuomintang rule in China (1949) or life in divided Berlin (1962). In 1954, he was the first Western photographer to document life in the Soviet Union after Stalin's death.


In addition to political themes, Cartier-Bresson also portrayed numerous artists, including Coco Chanel and Henri Matisse. Characterized by a keen eye for the essential and the ability to capture the “decisive moment” photographically, his street photography offers a humanistic approach.

The title Watch! Watch! Watch!reflects questions of perception that are only possible through the camera and with photography: it is the possibility of capturing a tiny moment. The extensive retrospective sheds light on the photographer's life's work from the 1930s to the 1970s using 240 exhibits and numerous publications in magazines and books. In addition to well-known, iconic images, the exhibition shows early, surrealist-influenced photographs as well as photo reports, portraits and never-before-seen images and films.


PHOTO ARSENAL WIEN shows the first retrospective of Henri from the holdings of the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in cooperation with the Bucerius Kunst Forum in Hamburg and the Fundación MAPFRE in Barcelona Cartier-Bresson has been in Austria for decades.