Henri Cartier-Bresson: A Modern Century at MoMA

Sharing the sixth floor with Marina is the newly opened exhibit of French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson. I was running super later to the curator-lead tour, but apparently didn’t miss anything. It was great to get the background on the artists from the curator, who has been at MoMA forever, but after a crazy workday I couldn’t handle too long a lecture. The photographer has a very interesting past, born in France just after the turn of the century; he began photographing in the 1930s before he was drafted into the French army in the 1940s. He was then a German prisoner of war for almost three years. After the end of the war, he continued to photograph as he traveled the world. The way he captured people in everyday life was the most profound. This is especially true as his photographs were taken before globalization and you can still see individual culture in a single snapshot. The curating was amazing at times but a letdown at others. Smaller photographs are always hard to appreciate at an institution as popular as MoMA, as I always feel pressure not to lag too long in front of a particular photograph. And even those moments when I loose myself in a photo, some child or entitled Upper East Sider starts hovering right beside me and the moment transitions to frustrating.

One wall feature these fabulous elderly women in Lincoln Nebraska, looking their finest for the State Legislature beside a picture of a similar set of women in Salamanca, Spain – both from the 1960s. It was great to see the similarities between two worlds that presumably couldn’t be more different. The show more than anything feels like a fantastic view of the past and therefore was appropriately named A Modern Century.  From Wall Street bankers to the growth of Asia, the show feels like a great look back. Furthermore, the way Besson captured people in the everyday pushes the pictures beyond historical to romantic. I especially loved “Jean-Marie Le Ciezio with His Wife” as Jean-Marie looks like the modern day son from a Patek Philippe ad but his wife is giving you ‘60s – hardcore. It was great pairing of trendy and timeless.  Another love was “Home Economics Show, La Defense” – the idea that a home ec show was held 50 years ago in a neighborhood of Paris that is the new symbol of modern commerce and finance. 

It’s a great show, definitely worth seeing and a clear departure from recent highlights at the MoMA that were much more contemporary.  I would go back to see the pictures again, but it has to be an off day when the crowds aren’t swarming – hopefully it wont be such a madhouse now with Time Burton gone (great show but good riddance)!