Henri Cartier-Bresson was the eye of the 20th century. His lens chronicled the decisive moments of his time – from Chinese communist victories to the Spanish Civil War and the Liberation of Paris. A co-founder of Magnum Photos, Cartier-Bresson produced unparalleled portraits of his contemporaries, capturing the spirit of Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre and William Faulkner.

Cartier-Bresson took Pierre Assouline into his confidence over a number of years, detailing his youthful devotion to surrealism, lifelong passion for drawing, and experiences of war and prison camps. This sensitive biography emerges from a meeting of two minds, revealed with the same truth as one of Cartier Bresson’s photographs.