Henri Cartier-Bresson

Cartier-Bresson's language is geometry plus timing. Trained as a painter, he would find a strong composition, a staircase, a doorway, a puddle, and wait with his small Leica until a person stepped into exactly the right place, an idea later summed up as the decisive moment. He printed full frame, without cropping, and the black borders proved it. He co-founded the Magnum agency in 1947 with Robert Capa, David Seymour and George Rodger, so photographers could own their negatives, and his travels through India, China and the Soviet Union show the method working anywhere.