The Mind's Eye - Writings on Photography and Photographers

Finding a copy of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s The Decisive Moment is easy now that the Internet does the searching for you. Paying for it once you have found it is less easy. Private sellers through Amazon.com currently have three copies for sale, the cheapest of which is $950. A more collectible specimen is $2,475. I really would like to read what HCB has to say, but I could buy a mint Rolleiflex Planar 2.8 for $2,475.

The recent DVD The Impassioned Eye (reviewed earlier) gives the view some insights into the master photographer’s way of thinking and way of viewing the world. The Mind’s Eye ($20 list, $13 street) does some of the same, with a bit more to say than the DVD. It is a small hardcover of just over 100 pages, 1.5-spaced, with rather big margins and quite of bit of white space. Don’t take a long train trip with just it to read. That said, it is a relatively inexpensive way to read some writings excerpted from other HCB books as well as some of his essays on photography and travel.

I won’t go on and on here about the book for fear of over-hyping it. If you are a devotee of Henri Cartier-Bresson, I think you’ll find the book worth the cost of a lunch. Though he was a very gifted photographer and artist, he was reticent. When you can find his writings inexpensively, get them. In thirty years, maybe you can sell it for $2,475.