Department of Cultural Affairs

Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos
Beijing December 1948, 10,000 KMT recruits in formation.

By Leo R. Maliksi
 
The “Cartier-Bresson in China 1948–1949 and 1958” exhibition was originally scheduled to open at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM) in April this year, but the COVID-19 pandemic delayed shipment of Cartier-Bresson’s photographic works. When the photographs finally arrived in Taiwan at the beginning of June, TFAM immediately made preparations to open the exhibition on 20 June.
 
In 1948–49 and 1958 Cartier-Bresson used captured on film historic upheavals in mainland China. His photographs show Chinese people going about their daily lives in a country torn asunder by civil war.
 
On 25 November 1948, before the arrival of Maoist troops, Life magazine commissioned Cartier-Bresson to tell a photographic story of the “Last Days of Beijing”. Starting in Beijing, he travelled to Nanjing, a city ruled by the Kuomintang, where he witnessed the defeat of the Nationalists by the Communists, and then to Shanghai. Originally intending to stay in China for two weeks, Cartier-Bresson was forced to stay in Shanghai for ten months while the city was under Communist control. He left the country a few days before the founding of the People’s Republic of China was formally proclaimed on 1 October 1949.


Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos
Beijing December 1948. A worker eats under the watchful gaze of the restaurant owner.
 
This photographic narrative of traditional Chinese lifestyles during the emergence of a new political and social order captured the imagination of Life readers, and his photographs were featured in top international news magazines (including the newly founded Paris Match). Cartier-Bresson’s work became a turning point in the history of photojournalism. From the fifties on, “China 1948–1949” became a major benchmark in “new” photojournalism and the renaissance of photography.
 
In 1958, as the tenth anniversary of his photographic odyssey drew near, Cartier-Bresson set off to China once again, but now conditions were completely different. Back in 1948, when the era of Chinese Communism was just beginning, he had been able to move around Chinese cities with a great deal of freedom. This time, during his four-month stay he was hampered by the presence of an official “guide”.


Photo by LRM
TFAM Director Lin Ping (right) with co-curators Michel Frizot (center) and Su Yinglong (蘇盈龍)


Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos
Shanghai, December 23, 1948. Jostling for a chance to buy gold.

In 1958, as the tenth anniversary of his photographic odyssey drew near, Cartier-Bresson set off to China once again, but now conditions were completely different. Back in 1948, when the era of Chinese Communism was just beginning, he had been able to move around Chinese cities with a great deal of freedom. This time, during his four-month stay he was hampered by the presence of an official “guide”.
 
Cartier-Bresson travelled thousands of kilometers to document the launch of the “Great Leap Forward,” the results of the revolution, and the forced industrialization of rural areas.


Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos
Shanghai, March, 1949. Children queue to get their share of rice.
 
Henri Cartier-Bresson was born in France in 1908. As a boy, he studied painting, which influenced his photographic style. He is known for paying special attention to his subjects’ facial expression and composing his photographs in the viewfinder rather than the darkroom.
 
The photographs in this exhibition were taken during the second visit to China. The exhibition has been curated by Michel Frizot from France’s Centre de recherche sur les arts et le langage (CRAL) and Su Yinglong, and each series of photos has been given a theme based on the timeline of Cartier-Bresson’s travels.
 
“Henri Cartier-Bresson’s photographic work gazes at and captures the transformation and evolution of China in the last century,” said TFAM Director Lin Ping. “His photographic images express the development of modern Asian history and reference points in the cultural development of Taiwan.”