Sometime in 1934, just after Hitler had come to power, three great photographers met in a dimly lit Berlin apartment to create a fourth. Munkasci, Robert Capa, and Chim were all of Jewish origin, and now they found their best work refused by anti-Semitic publications all over Europe. Out of work and starving, the trio decided to create a fictional photographer, under whose non-Jewish name they could publish their work.
So the impeccably bourgeois pseudonym of ‘Henri Cartier-Bresson’ was born. For American publications, the name would be modified to ‘Hank Carter’. The story of this prank is masterfully recounted in Paolo Rilf’s book, “Cartier-Bresson: A Man, A Myth” (1993). Dr. Rilf was initially puzzled by the fact that there no photographs of Paris or France in the early life of this quintessentially French photographer.
Initially conceived to earn extra money, the pseudonym was to be laid to rest after the war in a ‘posthumous’ MOMA retrospective in 1947. But Capa wanted to poke fun at the pretentious New York museum; for eight hundred francs, he hired a Parisian wine-merchant to pose as camera-shy Cartier-Bresson.
Around this time, the photo-agency Magnum was founded to pool photographs of many a lensman for Cartier-Bresson’s debut book. In the coming years, using the byline ‘Henri Cartier-Bresson’ enabled many photographers to travel anonymously in troubled hotspots around the world; in 1948, he famously reported from India, China, and Indonesia. Dr. Rilf’s book, long out of print but going to be reissued later today (April 1st), is a masterful tale which doubles as a detective thriller.
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Munkacsi, not Munkasci
Mr. Zlotán -- please give us dyslexics a break on spelling errors.
Pretty amazing! Thanks! Very informative and nice blog. wish you all the best !!
Totally fell for it and went to the Wikipedia page, all confused. (In my defense, I'm reading this on the 9th, so the April Fool's aspect didn't come to mind.)
Fabulous prank!
It has to be April's fool... good one! Can't believe how many fell for it...
Surely this is an April Fool's Day joke! http://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2013/04/01/the-men-behind-henri-cartier-bresson-curtain/
:)
This explains HBC's photos from the Tour de France's he covered! It always seemed like he was in more places than possible! Do check out the check out the collection "Cartier-Bresson on Bikes" when you get a chance. At times it seemed like he was at the beginning and end of Alpe d'Huez!
Hilarious