French artist and humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, and an early user of 35mm film. He pioneered the genre of street photography, and viewed photography as capturing a decisive moment. Cartier-Bresson was one of the founding members of Magnum Photos in 1947. In the 1970s, he largely[clarification needed] discontinued his photographic work, instead opting to paint.

Cartier-Bresson's photography took him to many places, including China, Mexico, Canada, the United States, India, Japan, Portugal and the Soviet Union. He became the first Western photographer to photograph "freely" in the post-war Soviet Union.

Cartier-Bresson retired from photography in the early 1970s, and by 1975 no longer took pictures other than an occasional private portrait; he said he kept his camera in a safe at his house and rarely took it out. He returned to drawing, mainly using pencil, pen and ink, and to painting. He held his first exhibition of drawings at the Carlton Gallery in New York in 1975.