A Great Photographer Came To India

Aju Mukhopadhyay

4 September 2008, 23:47

Fifteen minutes after he parted from Gandhiji, Henri Cartier-Bresson heard the shouts that he had been killed. He ran and covered Gandhi’s Funeral in 1948 that won him the Overseas Press Club award. On 14 April 1950 he visited Tiruvannamalai to photograph Raman Maharshi and on the same evening the sage passed away. He covered his funeral also. In the same month he came to Sri Aurobindo Ashram, after obtaining permission from the Mother, photographed Sri Aurobindo, Mother and ashram activities. His Pondicherry visit has not been mentioned by the press. Sri Aurobindo passed away on 5 December of the same year. It seems that the photographer had some uncanny intimation in each case.

After about the year 1920, Sri Aurobindo did not permit anybody to photograph him. But this time Mother made an exception. She liked his work. From this photographer we have some unique photos of the master, showing a great yogic change in his body. We have some unique photos of Mother and some photos showing the then ashram activities.

An incident may be mentioned here. The photographer was with the yogi, alone in a room, for ten minutes, while he was shooting. When he came out perspiring, he was apparently nervous. Some one asked, ‘How did it go?’ The reply was, ‘I have never seen a man like this. He was there absolutely immobile.’

The photos were published in the German magazine Heute, British magazine Illustrated and the Indian magazine, Illustrated Weekly. Mother disliked the texts in the former two magazines. So after prolonged negotiations the negatives were bought.
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Before coming to the ashram Henri Cartier-Bresson studied Sri Aurobindo. He was influenced by Buddhism. He studied English literature at Cambridge. He was first and foremost an artist (he studied painting, cubic art, under Andre Lohte) and then a photographer, a pioneer in photojournalism. ‘A velvet hand, a hawk’s eye- these we should all have.’ He said and with these he introduced an artist’s eye in the lens of his camera. The Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram said, ‘His camera has a soul.’ Satyajit Ray considered him the greatest photographer. He was christened ‘L’oeil du siecle’ (the eye of the century). The term associated with him is, ‘decisive moment’. His motto was catching the fleeting image, remaining invisible. All those wonderful things he created through a simple Leica, 50 mm and later 35 mm, camera. He disliked mechanical excellence in photography. About the automatic camera he said, ‘It’s like shooting partridges with machine gun.’

His black and white photos moved the people more than anything else through dailies, especially during the 2nd World war. He loved to penetrate the skin while portrait-photographing a person. Jean Paul Sartre, Truman Capote, Che Guevara, Mahatma Gandhi, Sri Aurobindo, Mother and Raman Maharshi were among the great he photographed.

He joined the French Army, was captured and served as prisoner-of-War for some 35 months. Twice he failed to escape but was successful on the third attempt. Then he joined the Resistance movement. His photos were exhibited in France, New York and other places. He directed some films also. Born on 22 August 1908, he passed away early the same month in 2004.

Photo used with permission of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry

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