Cartier-Bresson is Here

On June 16,1958, French photographer Henri Carder-Bresson arrived in Beijing. According to a press release from the Chinese Photographers Association (CPA), Cartier-Bresson came to China on a "photographic visit" for a book to be entitled "Ten Years of the People's Republic of China." As "friends will be treated with good wine/' on June 26, the president and vice president of the CPA received Cartier-Bresson and hosted him at a banquet according to Chinese etiquette. During Carder-Bresson's shooting in Beijing, the CPA also sent someone to accompany him. Carder-Bresson's relationship with China can be traced back to 1949 when he came to China for almost a year to take photographs, commissioned by the American magazine Life. China was at the crossroads of history that year. He took many photographs, some of which were published in Life pictorial. After returning to the West, he published a large photo book, D'une Chine a Yautre, 1954 (in English, From One China to the Other, 1956). The French version's preface was written by Jean-Paul Sartre, the leading figure in French existentialism. Before his 1958 trip to China, Cartier-Bresson and the book were characterized by the senior members of the mainland Chinese photographers' community represented by the leaders of CPA as "exposing the darkness of the Nationalist Party and objectively reporting on the rebirth of China by contrasting the old China with the new." [3] The book had a great influence in France and Western European countries. However, in the opinion of many mainland Chinese photographers some of his photos were "not clear in intention" and "did not reflect any social significance."