HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON IN INDIA: EURO-CENTRIC PHOTO-JOURNALISM

Abstract

As the world transitioned from the era of colonialism to the era of independent nations in the mid-twentieth century, issues surrounding their representation by the dispossessed ‘empires’ assumed a notable significance in the postcolonial discourse. The formation of Magnum Photos in 1947 in this context was a landmark event. It aimed to bring newsworthy events of different parts of the world to a global audience. This paper discusses the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson in South Asia during one of the most important occurrences in the region in modern times: the independence of India and the accompanying partition of the sub-continent into India and Pakistan in 1947. His photography in the region raises questions about iconic photo-journalistic narratives that have the power to emerge (and by extension, exclude other moments that fall under the same ambit) as a meta-narrative. Looking at Cartier-Bresson’s photographs of the India- Pakistan partition, Kashmir and several other events/ people in the subcontinent, the paper carries out a postcolonial reading highlighting the implications his photojournalistic, privileged and racial-political status carried for the selection and interpretation of the decisive moments he captured and archived through his various projects all over the Indian subcontinent.