Henri Cartier-Bresson: China 1948¿1949, 1958

In December 1948, Henri Cartier-Bresson travelled to China at the request of Life magazine. He stayed for ten months and captured some of the most spectacular moments in China¿s history: he photographed Beijing in `the last days of the Kuomintang¿, and then headed back to Shanghai, where he recorded the new regime¿s takeover. Moreover, in 1958, Henri Cartier-Bresson was one of the first Western photographers to go back to China to explore the changes that had occurred over the preceding decade. The `picture stories¿ he sent to Magnum and Life on a regular basis played a key role in Westerners¿ understanding of Chinese political events. Many of these images are among the most significant photographs in Cartier-Bresson¿s oeuvre; his empathy with the populace and sense of responsibility as a witness making them an important part of his legacy. Henri Cartier-Bresson in China allows these photographs to be re-examined along with all of the documents that were preserved: the photographer¿s c