But with photography as with drawing or painting, once it is done I want to know whether it holds together or not. That is the real critique. I couldn’t care less if the person to whom I show what I do likes it or not — it takes all sorts to make a world and all that. To criticize is to put oneself in someone else’s shoes and try to figure out what they wanted to do. Only the why of things is important to me.
Download Image Share on X Share on Facebook

About This Quote

About Henri Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier-Bresson was a 20th-century French photographer. Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French humanist photographer, and also an artist. He was considered a master of candid photography, and was an early user of 35mm film. Read more on Wikipedia →

More quotes by Henri Cartier-Bresson

“Reality offers us such wealth that we must cut some of it out on the spot, simplify. The question is, do we always cut out what we should? ”
— Henri Cartier-Bresson
photography reality

“Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.”
— Henri Cartier-Bresson
art perseverance photography

“It is through living that we discover ourselves, at the same time as we discover the world around us.”
— Henri Cartier-Bresson
art photography

“We photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing, and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again. We cannot develop and print a memory.”
— Henri Cartier-Bresson
continually contrivance memory photographers

“Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again.”
— Henri Cartier-Bresson
existence photography photojournalism

“For me, the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity.”
— Henri Cartier-Bresson
artist camera photography
View all quotes by Henri Cartier-Bresson →