Henri Cartier-Bresson: Europeans

In 1955, Henri Cartier-Bresson published “The Europeans”, a portrait of the continent documenting a landscape shadowed by the war. In this book, the photographer brings together images spanning the years from the late 1920s to the early 1970s. He has travelled across Europe, from the Scandinavian shield to the Irish bogs, in order to capture what it means to be European. Beyond nationalism and the particular characteristics of each culture and nation, he has found evidence of a greater identity, a likeness shared by the people and the landscape. His photographs seek to speak of the same daily ceremony, of the ongoing business of living for people across Europe, whether Polish priests in alb or cassock, or Abruzzi peasants shrouded in the black of their cloaks and hats.